Rights of Passage: Trip to Mississippi

Monday, March 31, 2008

Trip to Mississippi

Back in December we made a trip to New York City and met with Boris Dittrich the Advocacy Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Program of Human Rights Watch. He very graciously allowed us to interview him about his work and we were able to expand our knowledge and gain a better sense of the complex issues surrounding LGBT issues at the international level. Next, our focus is closer to home--a trip to Mississippi, April 18th-20th to attend the LGBT/Allies Regional Summit. Representatives from Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana are expected to attend to take part in discussions about working toward equality and a better life in the region. We are very excited to have been in touch with Andie Gibbs, Executive Director of Camp Sister Spirit Folk School and are looking forward to meeting her in person and hearing first hand what some of the human rights issues are here in the United States. To those of you that have something to say about the struggles of being gay in the South, we'd love to hear from you.

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What is Rights of Passage?

Rights of Passage is a new play about courage and love. About people all over the world who want to be who they are and why that simple concept is not always so simple to make real. The play is both personal and universal as it illuminates the lives of LGBT people from different cultures and backgrounds. The storytelling style of the play is based on the ageless performance techniques found on the Indonesian island of Bali; these same theatrical techniques, in somewhat different forms, also represent cultures throughout the world. Monologues, scenes, puppetry, masks, and dance will bring the play’s stories to life. Rights of Passage has been developed through extensive research, hundreds of interviews, and the unyielding support of LGBT citizens and activists around the world. Rights of Passage will have its world premiere at The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, beginning its run on August 17, 2012.

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Project Background

In the summer of 2007 we began our research for Rights of Passage, a new play project for The New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco http://www.nctcsf.org/. At the same time, The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) http://www.iglhrc.org/ in New York enthusiastically offered their support to the development of the play. Their assistance ignited our relationships with the vast international LGBT human rights network . ILGHRC continues as a primary guiding force for Rights of Passage, as does the work of Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/ and Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/

The themes in Rights of Passage are based upon the Yogyakarta Principles http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. This document is a universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfill that precious birthright.

Thanks to the power of the internet we are able to reach out to LGBT organizations, individuals, and our allies around the globe. We have also traveled traveled througout the US, Europe, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia conducting research for the play. Our future travel plans will take us to the Middle East, Africa, China, South America and the Ukraine.

Rights of Passage is supported in part by The James Hormel Small Change Foundation and the generosity of individual donors world wide. We welcome new sponsors at http://www.nctcsf.org/donation