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August 19th is Transgender Flag Day!

August 19th is known as Transgender Flag Day. Monica Helms’ original transgender pride flag was added to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on August 19, 2014, fifteen years after being created in 1999. Monica’s original flag was first displayed during a 2000 Pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona.

Monica Helms is a Phoenix resident, Navy veteran, and founded the Transgender American Veterans Association.

According to Monica:
The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender.

I had it patterned in such a way that it’s always correct no matter which way you fly it.”

To celebrate Transgender Flag Day, Button Button is offering 19% off 1″ #IllGoWithYou buttons! Use the discount code FLAG at checkout!
(Discount is valid until 11:59PM [Pacific] on Friday, August 23rd.)

Image Description: Pile of small circular buttons featuring the #IllGoWithYou logo, which is black serifed text reading "#IllGoWithYou" centered on the button over the transgender pride flag, which is a light blue bar on top, followed by a light pink bar, a white bar in the middle, followed by another light pink bar, then another light blue bar at the bottom. Superimposed over the bottom right side of the picture is white serifed text reading "#IllGoWithYou 1" Buttons"

Trans Day of Remembrance

Today is the Trans Day of Remembrance. It is also the Trans Day of Resilience. Rather than sharing our own thoughts, we’ve decided to do – as we’ve done all month long – to amplify the voices of trans artists, activists and writers.  Here are some reflections on the Trans Day of Remembrance and Resilience.

“Trans Day of Remembrance: A Letter of Blessings to My 16-Year-Old Self” – Janet Mock

“Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer” – Dean Spade (PDF)

“A Transgender Man’s Personal Day of Remembrance and Vision for the Path Ahead” – Lex Beatty

“Trans Artists Made These Stunning Posters for Trans Day of Remembrance” – Meredith Talusan

“Quiet Reflections: Why I Choose Silence on Trans Day of Remembrance” – Janet Mock 

 

New: Take the I’ll Go With You Pledge!

People have been asking for a place to sign an I’ll Go With You pledge, so we made one! You can find it here. A downloadable version for print use is available here (see Downloadable Graphics).

We have seen a huge surge in visibility recently due to new (horrible) legislation, media attention, and the upcoming Pride season, so THANK YOU, thank you all, for being active allies.

Website updates!

Hi folks! It’s been over a year since we started this project (WOW). I (Organizer H) just spent some time updating the website. A few key changes you might need to know about:

  • Media kit has been updated to include a new press release and downloadables for people handing out buttons at Pride and similar events.
  • The page formerly known as the Pride Rep App is now strictly an application for donated buttons. We had such a huge influx of Rep apps that we decided to make it easier for you and ourselves by simply making more materials available for download, and using an application only for people who need donated buttons.
  • Updated the history/about page to include Organizer D’s cool graphic introducing us organizers.
  • Updated various pages to point at the new link for the button site, buttonbuttonbuttons.com.
  • Updated the menu for organization and accessibility.

As always, thank you all for being a part of this journey with us.

Current Button Shipping Update for April 2016

If you would like to know current shipping times for buttons, please visit http://buttonbuttonbuttons.com – an expected shipping turnaround time will always be displayed at the top of the page.

Standard turnaround time is 10-14 business days (within the United States), but is frequently much shorter. If there is a delay (due to holidays, vacation, sudden influx of orders, etc.), an estimated delay window will be displayed. This status will be updated regularly, so you can know when to expect your order to arrive.

Once your order is being prepared for shipping, you will receive a notification email. If it contains buttons, you will also receive a tracking number. These tracking numbers work within the United States and in most foreign countries (however, details may be vague for international shipments).

If you ever have questions regarding shipping times, please feel free to contact Button Button directly via the contact form on the Button Button website (if you already have placed an order, please make sure to include your order number for a quicker and more accurate response).

Thank you all for your orders, your enthusiasm, and your active allyship!

Another update on buttons and shipping!

Good news, everyone. Button backlog has been eliminated, and buttons are now shipping out much more promptly. We have also upgraded our systems so we have much better tracking of packages!

If you feel you have been waiting too long for your buttons, please check the current shipping information on buttonbuttonbuttons.com and if your order hasn’t come in a timeframe consistant with the site info, email the button making team directly using their contact form. They will get you sorted!

Do please note that the button team is the only ones who can help with ordering/shipping/etc questions–the social media and website teams do not have access to your ordering information.

An Update on Buttons and Ship Times

This is direct from our button team, folks. These people work very hard, sometimes very long hours, for little-to-no pay. The button makers are the only part of the I’ll Go With You team which makes any money, and they do so only at the insistence of the rest of us, who basically forced them to pay themselves the minimum wage (EDIT January 2022: The button team has not been able to pay themselves since 2019, with all money going toward keeping buttons distributed and paying taxes.)

First, I would like to thank everyone who is willing to go with someone and stand up as an ally. Secondly, I want to say that your patience is VERY appreciated. Due to this being a very small business and my having to scale it up rapidly (with some understandable growing pains; waiting for a LOT of additional supplies to arrive initially and having to switch to new methods of packaging & shipping), plus the amount of buttons ordered over the last 4-5 weeks… this has been overwhelming, but it is on track and has gotten more efficient through some small trial & error. At this point about 80% of the orders placed over the last 4-5 weeks have been shipped out and will arrive soon (if they haven’t already).

As noted on the site, there is a current 3-4 week shipping delay on top of the standard 7-10 day turnaround time. This delay is getting smaller, the more orders are sent out, but please assume that the delay may be an additional 3-4 weeks on top of the standard turnaround time. These estimates apply to domestic orders shipped within the United States. International orders may take longer to arrive, as they have further to go and customs checkpoints to clear.

Please be careful to give the correct address when filling out your shipping information. And please be sure to check your email in case I’ve sent you a message about correcting your address. Thank you to those who have gotten back to me already!

If you feel you have been waiting too long for your order and want to check on it, please consider that it does take time for me to look it up for you and tell you it will be shipped in the next week or two (if it hasn’t already) and that is time spent not making buttons. I am responding to status requests on Mondays and Fridays from now on. All other queries will still be handled on a daily basis (except for Sunday, because I do need a day off).

If you are ordering for an event, PLEASE notate that and the date of the event both on your order and then in an email after you place your order, with the order number. I cannot guarantee you will receive your buttons in time for the event if you don’t give me at least one week to get them to you AND let me know the date by which you need them.

Once I am sufficiently caught up on orders and the delay is gone, the ordering page will change. It will be easier to order, all new orders will be able to track your package, you will be automatically notified when your order ships, and all that fun stuff. I just need a couple days to switch everything over and I’m looking forward to being able to provide everyone with a much more transparent and efficient way to obtain #IllGoWithYouButtons.

It has really been a joy to read all the encouraging notes included with so many of the orders and I can’t wait to compile them and pass them along to the rest of the IGWY team. In September, I will also be updating the Google map I created, which shows every city to which a button has been sent… I have a feeling you’re going to be quite surprised to see how much coverage IGWY has!

Again, thank you all for your support of this brilliant and much-needed idea and I appreciate your patience as this grows. You’re wonderful and I can’t wait to see everyone’s buttons being worn! Please send pics to the Facebook page!!!

P.S. To the person who requested I draw Bill Murray for style points… ask me again when the number of orders isn’t so overwhelming and I’ll be happy to sketch badly on another envelope.

A Note on Fear…

We have received several comments from folks concerned that a person might wear a button in order to lure a trans person into a private, gendered space and hurt them.

While we recognize that we cannot plan for every contingency, and improbable things do happen, we believe that wearing a public marker of allyship (and marking oneself as a support of trans folks) will deter people from using it improperly. We have not received any reports of such actions occurring, and it should be noted that this could happen with or without a button.

Remember: you are never EVER required to take assistance or company, even if it’s offered. Respect your instincts – they’ve gotten you this far.

And if you’re at all concerned that you might be harassed for wearing the pin – or any pin that marks you as queer or a queer ally – please consider your own safety first, and remove the pin if you are not comfortable with the risks of wearing it.

NOTE: As of 2022, with over 500,000 #IllGoWithYou beacons distributed throughout the world (on six continents) since March 2015… we have yet to hear of a negative incident taking place.

The Pride Representative App is Open!

Are you interested in being an official I’ll Go With You representative at your local Pride event (or other similar event)? We have a special package of signage and information available, along with priority ordering, for the people we select to represent the organization at local Pride events.

We will select one rep per event/location (and may ask you to coordinate to share duties if we get a lot of apps from one event) and work with them to be the best rep possible.

More information and the application are available here.