 | | Dear Luc, Signing a petition. Chipping in a small donation. Speaking out on the streets. Sharing images and actions on Facebook. We use our global people power to push governments and corporate leaders to stand up against anti-gay laws and attitudes – from the Olympics in Russia to reforming the UK's asylum rules. The All Out team is so proud of what we've done. If you are too, believe is important – and making a difference – it makes it easier for them to join in too. The more of us there are, the bigger and faster impact we can have, in more places. Click here to show your friends that you'll be taking a stand in 2015 and ask them to join you: And, as a bonus, you'll find out if any of your friends are already proud All Out members when they share too. There's a lot to be proud of. Just take a look at what we've done in 2014: - February: More than 150,000 All Out members emailed Coca-Cola's
- CEO urging the company to denounce the anti-gay laws. We also funded
- massive billboards on trucks to swarm Coca-Cola HQ with a powerful
- message: "Coca-Cola, speak out now." We whipped up a media storm:
- three National Olympic sponsors publicly denounced the anti-gay laws.
- To take our message global, All Out members and people everywhere
- showed support by buying Principle 6 gear created by American Apparel.
- Celebrities like Rihanna, Mark Ruffalo, and Zachary Quinto wore P6 gear
- on social media. Love and equality became the name of the Olympic
- Games.
- March: 'Red Pepper' is a Ugandan tabloid famous for 'outing' gay, lesbian
- and trans people. When we realized that French telecoms giant Orange
- was buying ads from them, we took action. 80,000 of us signed a petition
- asking them to pull their advertising from the paper – and we won! They
- agreed to stop their contract.
- April: Aderonke was arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death in Nigeria
- when it was discovered she was a lesbian. She fled to safety in the UK, but
- she went through a humiliating interrogation by UK officials who didn't
- believe her. More than 230,000 of us created a massive outcry to convince
- the Home Office to halt these unfair deportations until their process is
- inclusive for gay, lesbian and trans asylum seekers. Aderonke is still in the
- UK, fighting for all asylum-seekers.
- May: Do you remember Lou Engle? He's an anti-gay religious leader:
- he even supported Uganda's brutal 'Kill the Gays' bill. So when he tried to
- go to Geneva, Switzerland on a tour to raise support for his anti-gay
- campaign, 70 000 of us spoke out. The Mayor of Geneva joined the
- mobilization and the conference that was hosting him dropped him. We
- won!
- June: 7,000 of us signed an urgent petition to Paraguay's President urging
- him to sign an OAS resolution that would help protect gay, lesbian, bi and
- trans people. Our partners in Paraguay, SOMOSGAY, organized a street
- protest that was violently attacked by the police, catching huge media
- attention. We delivered our signatures just before the vote – and won!
- The President announced he would sign the resolution.
- July: After Uganda's anti-gay law was struck down, we helped the
- Ugandans celebrate – big time! We secretly helped fund a big and
- beautiful pride parade. Then, almost 3,000 of us chipped in to fund a
- tabloid in Uganda, that's being distributed around the country, telling the
- real, inspiring, and heartbreaking stories of the lesbian, gay, bi and trans
- people who live there – or have fled.
- September: The IOC announced that Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter
- prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Last month, they
- voted to include 'sexual orientation' in the charter, explicitly granting
- protection to all lesbian, gay and bisexual athletes.
- November: Officials in Buenos Aires were threatening that they would not
- provide security for the city's Pride Parade. But after more than 10,000
- of us came together and signed a petition, city officials decided to provide
- security and safety for this important event.
See what I mean, Luc? We've done A LOT together this year. Thank you for going All Out, all year long. Andre, Jeremy and the rest of the All Out team.
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