Fight OUT Loud is a non-profit organization in the United States aimed to empower LGBT individuals. Fight OUT Loud was established in 2007.

Overview

Fight OUT Loud is a United States

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit organization established in 2007 to empower

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

, gay,

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

(

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

) individuals, and their

allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

to fight discrimination and hate. The organization also works to raise awareness of

hate crimes A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

as in the cases of E.O. Green School shooting of Lawrence King. The group also advocates for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

History

Fight OUT Loud was founded by Waymon Hudson and Anthony Niedwiecki as a result of a 2007 incident where an employee at the

Fort Lauderdale International Airport A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

played an anti-gay

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a deat ...

over the intercom quoting a Bible verse from Leviticus reading "men that lie with men as with women should be put to death." The couple complained but no action was taken until they alerted local and national media outlets. According to Hudson, the incident became an international news story. According to the group they had over 5,000 members in less than four months of doing their free online action alerts. Their first cause after the airport incident was supporting two 14-year-old lesbians in Portland, Oregon who were verbally abused by the bus driver as he was kicking them off the bus for kissing. The group worked with the teens and their mothers, the Portland transit department issued an apology in response to the concerns.

National Recognition

In 2007 Fight OUT Loud became a leader in the effort to address

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

Mayor Jim Naugle's comments about the gay community. Comments Naugle made about alleged use of a planned $250,000 robotic toilet in Fort Lauderdale's beach to prevent sexual encounters between men caused protests from the local community.Alt URL
/ref> In a press release and in public rallies they tied his official public statements to violent anti-gay incidents. The protests and campaign led to Naugle's removal from Broward County's Tourism Board, and the proposed toilet was eliminated from the budget. In 2008 the group announce the first four members of their newly formed national board of advisors including: Chip Arndt (activist and winner of ''

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'' -

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); Matt Foreman (Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force);

David Mixner David Benjamin Mixner (born August 16, 1946) is an American political activist and author. He is best known for his work in anti-war and gay rights advocacy. Early life Mixner was born on August 16, 1946, and grew up in the small town of Elm ...

(political strategist, civil rights activist and public affairs advisor); and Pam Spaulding (Editor and publisher of ''Pam's House Blend''). In 2010 Hudson and Niedwiecki moved to Chicago and continue to coordinate the group's work from there online. In 2011 the organization was the beneficiary of "Rock Out Loud", a music concert and anti hate crimes rally at

Nova Southeastern University Nova Southeastern University (NSU or, informally, Nova) is a private nonprofit research university with its main campus in Davie, Florida. The university consists of 14 total colleges, centers, and schools offering over 150 programs of study. ...

Anthony Niedwiecki

A law professor and administrator at Broward County's

Shepard Broad Shepard Broad (July 8, 1906 – November 6, 2001) was a Belarusian- American banker, lawyer, and philanthropist. Early life and immigration to America Shepard Broad was born in Pinsk, in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present- ...

law school, Niedwiecki and his husband Waymon Hudson were co-founders of the

lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

lobby group Fight OUT Loud, and led an activist campaign against former

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

mayor Jim Naugle after Naugle made a number of anti-gay statements. The couple also lobbied the Florida State Senate to overturn the state's ban on gay adoption, after taking in a foster child who had been abandoned as "unadoptable" by the state because of the child's

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

status. The couple wed in California in before Proposition 8 passed in June 2008 and remain legally married as one of 18,000 couples still wed after the anti-gay marriage proposition passed.

References

External links

Organization websiteFounder's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fight Out Loud LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States Charities based in the United States