Rights of Passage: Work Gets in the Way but Rights of Passage Moves On

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Work Gets in the Way but Rights of Passage Moves On

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The last six weeks Ed has been busy directing the Bay Area premiere of Alan Bennett’s Tony Award winning The History Boys www.nctcsf.org/press_room/history_boys/history_boys.htm. Since his return from the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Robert has been busy catching up with things at the Global Health Fellows Project www.ghfp.net. Despite the daily distractions of gainful employment, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes monitoring several LGBT human rights stories around the globe and seeking funding for the Rights of Passage project.

Ed conducted a phone interview with Ben Han whose recent feature in the San Francisco Chronicle alerted us to Bejing’s “gay life in the shadows”.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/08/22/MNGB12CRTC.DTL. Continuing to monitor turmoil at Camp Sister Spirit www.CampSisterSpirit.com as this safe haven LGBT non-profit struggles for survival in the deep south. Also of great interest is Robert’s contact with a young gay former Peace Corps volunteer, Jeremiah Johnson, who has been sharing his experiences with LGBT human rights progress in the Ukraine. The New York Times just reported the story of Pape Mbaye from Dakar, Senegal who has escaped persecution in West Africa and been granted asylum in the US – we are on the trail. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/nyregion/06pape.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

We will visit Muskegon, MI to visit Ed’s sister this month and catch a glimpse of small town gay life on the blue collar shores of Lake Michigan. Pending funds and travel synchronicity, an early December sojourn to either the Middle East or Central Europe is being planned.
Further, on the money front we have two major grant requests pending, One with the Phyliss C. Wattis Foundation www.WattisFoundation.org and the other with former Ambassador James Hormel’s private philanthropy endeavor The Small Change Foundation. Both requests are for multi-year support to fund our research, script development and ultimately production of the premiere at The New Conservatory Theatre Center in 2010.

Heartfelt thanks to Rights of Passage individual donors: Norm Abramson, David Beery, Douglass Christensen, Hanna Decker, Fritz Neumann, Scott and Julie Jacoby, William Moss, Debra Mosk, Carl & Suzanne Nelson, Debra Shapiro, Beth & Lisa Soloway, Leonie Walker and Vincent Zappacosta.

More money news. This time about the Rights of Passage project raising cash to support the work of others engaged in the LGBT Human Rights struggle. This past summer the New Conservatory Theatre Center hosted three benefit cabaret evenings and raised $2000 which was divided among the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission www.IGLHRC.org Camp Sister Spirit and the Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org. Special thanks to all the performers involved.

I think that catches us up for now. As ever, we welcome your thoughts, personal experience submissions, and links to others as we continue our Rights of Passage journey together.

Photo: Policemen watch participants at an ecumenical service at an Anglican Church during the first Gay Pride in Riga, Latvia, while anti-gay demonstrators threaten them, July 23 © 2005 Reuters Limited.

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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.

Post your story here or contact us privately at sfwave@comcast.net

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