Good Afternoon. I am millay Freschi, coordinator for Amnesty International-E, the official Amnesty International group in Second Life, founder of the Four Bridges Project, and a newly elected Second Pride Ambassador.
I was asked if I would like to give some opening remarks for the festival but I wasn’t sure from which role I should speak. Am I millay Freschi of Amnesty International today? Am I speaking as millay Freschi, Ambassador?
Maybe as the friend of Danny, or the niece of Mark – two gay men that have affected my life in extraordinary ways or maybe I’m speaking as a citizen of Bangor, Maine, USA that saw a young, gay man get thrown from a bridge to his death by members of my own community several years ago.
What I have come to realize is that it doesn’t matter who I am when I speak. What matters is that I – that all of us let our voices rise with pride in who we are and with conviction in what we believe.
When Zack first spoke with me about putting my name in the hat for the Ambassadorship, I was humbled. I wondered why he would ask me to sit in such an important seat.
I was asked by a few if I was concerned that people would think me LGB or T. Why should that affect anyone’s thought of who I might be?
No one at Second Pride has ever asked me about my sexuality or been concerned that I might NOT be LGB or T. That has never been an issue but what I have come to realize is that it WOULD affect me. In some countries it could even get me killed.
That, in and of itself, should be absolutely unacceptable to everyone and THAT is what I’m doing here today. It begins with the way that we think about one another.
Amnesty International says it well on their Outfront page:
“We all have a sexual orientation and a gender identity, and this shared fact means that discrimination against members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, based on sexual orientation and/ or gender identity, is an issue that transcends that community and affects all of us.”
http://www.amnestyusa.org/lgbt-human-rights/about-lgbt-human-rights/page.do?id=1106573.
LGBT rights are an international issue.
Since October, 2008, 3 transgender women have been killed in Honduras by their own police force – those paid to serve and protect. In Cameroon, Africa, several dozen people have been arrested and jailed for engaging in same sex sexual relations. Some report being subjected to humiliation and abuses while jailed.
These countries may seem far removed from where we sit today but the abuses are happening everywhere. Kids are being bullied and harassed by classmates that throw vulgarities at them based on their sexuality: real or perceived.
Across the street from me, a gay couple reads in our papers about the fight to take away their right to marry less than a month after the right was “given”….as if it should have been at issue at all.
This is our community…mine, yours, and those far removed. We all suffer the consequences when human rights are denied and we all have a responsibility to insure those human rights for all.
I speak for Amnesty International when I say that what Second Pride has created for ALL of us goes a long way to insuring the rights of LGB and T people all over the world.
We are honored by their having chosen Amnesty International as the recipient of this year’s proceeds.
I know that we were chosen because they believe in the work that we’re doing to support LGBT rights in the real world by supporting all of the efforts here in the magical world of Second Life.
What we have done in Second Life may seem small, but in times such as these, when we, as human beings can reach across physical lines and boundaries and begin to get to know one another aside from what our religions, our governments, or even our own narrowed perspectives might afford ,gives us the opportunity and the responsibility to re-evaluate our ideas and see each other as the humans that we are behind the text.
Where else could we all be here together today celebrating our pride in each other and in ourselves?
I am so proud to be standing here today as millay of Amnesty International –E and millay, Second Pride Ambassador, friend of Danny, niece of Mark, citizen of Bangor, resident of this international community of Second Life and co steward of this planet Earth.
I am happy and PROUD to have been asked under any and all of those guises to be a part of the opening ceremony today and to have the privilege of holding the torch as we light an Eternal Flame for all. Here is wishing us a world of hope and a week of solid success and awareness.
Thank you for allowing me to be here and to show my pride.
This is for you, Uncle Mark, and for all of those who must live their lives in the darkness.