Second Pride

The following "vision statement" was written by our Presiding Chair, Mr. Rimpoche Kiama. Our upcoming public meetings (11AM & 7PM on both Saturday, Dec. 12 and Sunday, Dec. 13 at Second Pride HQ) are to determine how the membership feels about the current Second Pride and what its potential is for the future. This vision statement SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED as a new charter -- in fact, it is just one vision of where Second Pride COULD head -- not should head or will head. Please read the statement and come to one of the four public meetings this weekend. Second Pride belongs to neither the current standing Committee nor to the AHCC, it belongs to YOU, the current and future/potential members. We really want to hear what you have to say.

If you have not already created a user account at secondpride.com I encourage you to do so. Important discussions regarding the future of Second Pride and the Ad Hoc Charter Committee will take place here.

Peace,

Keo

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THE SECOND PRIDE VISION STATEMENT

Second Pride has been an integral part of the LGBT Community of the virtual world platform, Second Life for almost five years. During that time, the main focus has been on raising funds for charitable donation, usually to charities with some connection to the LGBT community outside of Second Life.

In 2009, I suggested that in order to better serve the community within Second Life, we begin to shift towards fundraising for the funding of our own programs, offices, and maintenance. Although this is covered in the charter, a shift of this nature requires immediate clarification, and endorsement from the general membership and committee.

This document serves as a guideline and tentative timeline to set forth the goals of Second Pride in the next three years.

2009-2010

The first priority of the organization is to regain the confidence not only of membership, but the greater LGBT Community within Second Life. This presents two difficulties. Firstly, the amount of personal involvement at a gut emotional level has to an extent given the impression that the organization is not professional in how it handles business in the virtual world. In order to change this view, Second Pride's elected and appointed officials must maintain a level of personal decorum and professionalism second to none. We must respect diversity, but not at the cost of what is the truth. Respect comes from a recognition of every sentient beings individuality, and must be given even in the face of absence from that individual.

Secondly, Second Pride faces a multi-faceted community within SL that represents diverse groups with diverse agendas. We cannot and should not ever claim to represent or speak for all of these groups. We can as part of our mandate direct individuals and help them make informed decisions about communities within Second Life they may be a part of. Our organization should be a staging group for new LGBT members of Second Life and not claim to represent any one organization. To do so would disrespect the diversity we must recognize and accept.

Thirdly, we must reach out to the existing Second Pride family via programs like the Adhoc charter committee to reform our governing document, and the Rainbow Merchants Program. Further initiatives into the community have been made by allowing documents and minutes from meetings to become public domain. As well, financial statements and committee meetings themselves are now open for public view and participation.

Our first year is dedicated to Amnesty International USA. We have committed to raising funds for this organization, and we will follow through with our commitment.

Our web page and web domain are now the property of the Second Pride Group, via the media chair. The fees are paid for by donations made by membership and the public. We will spend the next months fine tuning the page which has become and will continue to become more accessible and easier to navigate.

Finally, the festival itself will be a culmination of the events that have transpired over the course of the year, along with new venues and events which reflect both the struggle for civil liberties that is experienced in the real world by real people, and issues which effect people within the virtual world of Second Life. Ours is a community of activists, artists, poets, dancers, business owners, politicians, and even Lindens. Pride 2010 will help to reflect this diversity and showcase to the membership our own multi-faceted village.

The festival becomes the launching platform for the next phase of Second Pride.

2010-2011: Second Pride Chrysalis

Stage two begins with the election of the committee for 2010-11 and the implementation of the LGBT Health Services Office Initiative. Before an office can be opened, it needs to be clearly understood what the office's duties and obligations are.

LGBT HEALTH SERVICES OF SECOND LIFE DIRECTIVES

1. To provide LGBT friendly welcome and assistance to new Second Life users who identify with the LGBT Community.

2. To provide up to date information on physical health issues relevant to the LGBT community to include but not be exclusive of hiv/aids, sexually transmitted diseases and prevention, mental health and well being, emotional support and peer counseling, real world counseling referral services (to be determined by national hotline #'s, referrals to local LGBT community resources real world, etc).

3. To provide training and support for peer counselors by developing a standard training curriculum and regular seminars and educational support outlets.

4. To reach out to the greater community of Second Life by involving ourselves at all level of community, and by reaching out to the LGBT Community within Linden Labs.

5. To provide a community directory of resources within Second Life.

6. To provide a community-based leadership for the LGBT Community and thereby helping to foster, nurture, and support future activists and community volunteers in Second Life, thereby inspiring perhaps activists and volunteers to translate their activities into real world organizations and committees.

There are two ways to create the office: use existing space on land donated by volunteers, or to use land purchased and maintained by Second Pride. Initially a health services office created and maintained by volunteers at all levels works best because it involves the community directly, and it allows for the community to help shape the overall direction of the office itself. The office will have one paid employee, the Executive Director, who will be hired with the mandate to maintain, foster, and help the health services office to become a visible entity within the LGBT Community primarily, the Second Life community secondly. The position will pay $1L/year and be subject to review by the elected committee. In other words, the Executive Director, although autonomous, must be accountable at all times to the committee and the membership by providing regular (six times yearly) reports detailing initiatives, programs, and statistics to the committee. Should it become apparent that the Executive Director is negligent in their duties, or the need for a health services office be minimal to negligible, the office and the Executive Director will be phased out.

Fundraising therefore functions to serve two purposes: to pay for the Pride Festival's encumbrances, and to facilitate the costs of the health services office should there be any. Funds in excess will not be present: once the budgeted funds have been collected via donation, the fundraising stops. Any excess is returned, or remains in the Second Pride Avatar account to be credited towards the next phase of fundraising.

While the health services office is being developed, membership needs to be expanded and consulted as to the needs and desires for a LGBT presence in Second Life. One thing that is apparent is that there is a large, fractured community of "islands". Separately, each reflects an individual vision and requires a massive amount of funding spread over large "zones" to maintain. I feel it would be next to impossible to be able to please every single collective owner and unite every LGBT simulator in one supercontinent, although I know several individuals have attempted to create such a zone. What I propose is to link these islands through Second Pride as a group rather than physically move them together. Second Pride must acknowledge the autonomy of each of these organizations and respect their individual rights. We cannot claim to represent every LGBT person in Second Life. We can, however, offer ourselves as a soap box.

Second Pride will continue to approach these communities and welcome those who come to us, in order that we can form a collective commonwealth of individual communities who's goal and desire is to promote healthy and affirmative LGBT life choices, thereby providing education and resources for individuals real world. This should not exclude the LGBT community at Linden Labs. It must be stressed that although Linden Labs may and probably will choose a position of neutrality, at all times the Lab must be invited to participate in the process. At some point, it may require Second Pride to approach using the community participation program announced earlier this year (2009).

In summary, the 2010-2011 year will involve establishing a community presence through the health services office, and by to continue to actively reach out to individual communities within Second Life to create a collective group of autonomous communities that in time of need and trouble will support and help each other. In this way, we serve to better our own name and reputation.

One thing clearly exists in Second Life as it does in the real life: the need for self preservation through expanding issues of a personal nature, and the inclusion of those personal issues by others. It is important to address the issue of dramas because in the past, committee members and chairs have drifted from the directives of the Second Pride idea by participating in and involving themselves with personal dramas.

The Second Pride Committee of elected chairs must at all times be professional and courteous in all their interactions and dealings with the public. The moment a committee member involves themselves in an issue that does not further the community or the good works and development of the organization, the entire organization will falter back again into the mire we in the 2009-2010 committee have worked so hard to dig out of. The cost of growth is the freedom to give ever individual, regardless of viewpoint or perspective, the respect and courtesy that every human being is entitled. This should be the golden rule of Second Pride.

2011-2012: Second Pride Metamorphosis

This year will be the most challenging of those to come because it involves the greatest change.

Second Pride by this time will have a greater community presence and involvement than it did when it first began. It is hoped that the membership will have increased and diversified to include more lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered members by means of health services office programs specific to those key groups.

The next challenge is to approach the membership early in the year, preferably immediately following the election of the 2011-2012 committee, and provide a plebiscite which question asks:

"Does the membership feel it would benefit the LGBT community of Second Life for the Second Pride Committee to begin proceedings to implement the necessary steps for the formation and maintenance of a LGBT Portal presence in Second Life?"

It is important that this decision and the undertaking of the project be given to the entire membership of Second Pride because inevitably, it will be the community that will have to pay for, maintain, and staff the portal. Linden Labs inspects, and checks portals to meet criteria outlined in the wiki and if not maintained to their standards, portals are removed or revoked. This is not an easy task and will require a huge outpouring of financial and volunteer support from the community.

However, one aspect will already be taken care of: the health services office will be able to move in and take on some responsibility of mentorship and exposure. The implementation of a portal would also provide Second Pride with simulators that it could and should use for fundraising, education, and awareness events. Also, these simulators could be rented out in the same way that Linden Labs rents out mainland simulators by the day, providing added revenue should it be needed. Again, the presence of actual Second Pride simulators in no way should be viewed as a means of forcing individual autonomous communities within Second Life to unify under the Second Pride banner. Second Pride only seeks to become the mortar that holds these communities together, acting as a channel for communication and organization should it be required or desired.

The added bonus of a portal is the automatic inclusion of new members in Second Pride that, at sign up, identify with the LGBT community. This bonus however comes with a heavy price. As stated previously in this document, it is crucial that staff, chairs, and anyone involved with a portal or directly involved with the elected committee have the highest standards of professionalism and courtesy. To that end, I also feel it may be necessary before implementation of the points in this document to develop a guideline for staff and chairs on how to best handle public relations, to be ratified jointly by committee and general membership before implementation.

2012 and Beyond:

By now, everyone is familiar with the prophecy of the Aztec Long Count calendar, which states that the end of the current cycle we live in occurs on December 23, 2012. Some see this as the end of the world as we know it, stating that the things we hold close to us, the objects and tools we use and find so familiar will rise up and attack us, bringing our civilization to an abrupt and horrible end.

I would like to offer a different point of view as part of my closing statement. I have heard it said by those who have spoken with Aztec shamans and holy people that it is not the end of the world, but rather the beginning of a new cycle that has not been calculated because it will be infinite, and infinite good will come from it. Rather than being feared, it should be celebrated and welcomed as a time of transition, change, and metamorphosis.

Second Pride began humbly in the community of Provincetown, Second Life. It encouraged supporting LGBT merchants, and proposed to raise funds for donation to ethical charities in the real world that reflected the values we in the real world reflected in our Second Life experience.

We are now at a time of change. Should this document be ratified as policy by the committee and the membership, Second Pride will begin the next step of its metamorphosis, taking its place as a leader and community builder. The festival should and always must be a means for reflecting the diversity that exists. The organization must always, first and foremost, be about taking care of its own community within Second Life. It has been asked time and again if donations can be given tax receipts, and this brings to light an important issue. Credibility.

Second Pride must and can only be credible to the LGBT community if it serves the LGBT community. It cannot do this by supporting third party charities through fundraising. The focus of Second Pride should be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, two spirited peoples and those that question or wish to learn about the community. Second Pride, if it is to grow and survive as a viable organization must do one of two things: exclusively focus on a week to two week long festival, or diversify and stand to be a leader and resource center for all people in Second Life. We can become a model, as this year's committee has become a model, for every community group in Second Life if we take the opportunity that we have right now.

I thank the membership for giving me the opportunity to serve and give my ideas. I hope that the next time an elected chair says that, it will be to more than the 22 people who voted for him or her.

Equally, I must thank every past chair and committee: it is the actions of those that have come before us that have created the circumstance we are now in, and it is based on those actions that we, right or wrong, will be judged.

I thank the 2009-2010 committee: Anden, Marcus, Kefir, Kiroja, Isaiah, Eaglewoman, and Keo. You, your co-chairs, and your sub-committees have proven to me that community not only exists, but thrives and is a force to be reckoned with. These individuals prove to me that what I would like to accomplish is not only possible and necessary, but that I do not dream alone.

And I would especially like to thank Zack, Stryker, and Madison for helping to galvanize and unify the committee, but also the community. Without your help, we would never had had a rallying point to work from. Thank you for doing what you have always done best: motivating others to effect change by taking positive action in the face of adversity.

Rimpoche Kiama

Second Pride 2010