Adam Britt’s Equality Ride Journey

Hi y’all!

I am not sure anyone reads this anymore, but I just wanted to give folks a tiny update about what i am up to currently.

Right now I am doing a lot of work with a local non profit group, The Center for Artistic Revolution, CAR. I have working with them for quite a while now and owe more to this group than I will ever be able to return. If everyone could check out the website and sign up for the e-mailing list, that would be great and you would be able to keep up to date with all of CAR’s news.

Thanks!

Love,

Adam Britt
www.ArtisticRevolution.org

Today was a long day. We spent most of the day working on our presentations and we had our final gathering as an entire group before we leave tomorrow, which is also going to be a long day. I am quickly learning that being on the Equality Ride means very, very little sleep.

Love,

Adam

Compared to yesterday, today was a very calm and slow day. We spent most of the morning participated in a diversity training. Unfortunately I was in and out of the room quite a bit to tie up all the loose ends at Dordt, the school I am coordinating. After the training we spent more time working on our presentations and while our presentation is not done yet, I can already tell it is going to be a good and I am excited about it.

Love,

Adam

Today was an amazingly difficult and intense day, as I knew it would be. We started the day with a presentation from Peterson Toscano about the ex-gay movement and what it means for us and what it means for the people involved in it. It was very informative and I feel like I was able to learn a lot from it. During lunch we worked on our presentations and I like where it is going and I am excited to see the final product. After lunch, we heard Peterson speak again and we were blessed with having Phil Lawson speak. Phil Lawson has worked extensively in the Civil Rights movement and his brother helped train the young people who participated in the lunch counter sit-in, in methods of non-violence tactics. He spoke to us for a while and was an incredibly powerful person to hear speak and I wish that I could have had more time to sit and chat with him about his story.

After having him speak, we had the training session that I have been dreading since the first Training in January. It was the tactics of Non-Violence session. In this session we practiced engaging the hurtful and anger filled conversations that will be happening towards us at these universities and communities. We paired off and took turns yelling profanities and incredibly hurtful things to our partner for 30 seconds and then we switched positions. At first glance it seems weird that we would practice yelling these things at people we have come to love, however it was interesting to be in that position. However, when you are in this position, you say things that you did not even realize that you were even capable of saying, and it helps put into perspective the mind set that the people who are yelling at us are in. Even if a conversation starts out calm and nice, it can quickly become a thing that you get caught up in and do not even realize what you are saying. It was an incredible emotionally time for everyone and seeing these people that I love being shouted at was incredibly hurtful. After this, we covered what to do during physical violence and it was very uncomfortable, however a very necessary thing to have.

We have another day of non-violence training tomorrow and while it is very uncomfortable, I know that is very necessary.

Love,

Adam

The four Arkansas Riders finally arrived in Minneapolis. We had a few flight delays due to snow here, but we are here now. When we arrived, GLAAD was finishing up their presentation about how to deal with the media. I wish I had been there for this entire presentation, as I feel I need it, however I can be caught up. We practiced how to deal with various forms of media and it made me feel much more comfortable with my ability to deal with these situations. We went to a fundraiser for the Ride and our sending off service was amazing. The best part of the service was hearing Malcom speak. He had a lot of very powerful things to say. He has an amazing story and I wanted to speak more to him about it, however he left early. Seeing him speak was enough, however. I hope I have the opportunity to meet him again.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. The first half of the day is dedicated to the ex-gay movement and the second half will be dedicated to learning the tactics of non-violence. Busy day.

Love,

Adam

The Sending off service for the Arkansas Riders went really well. It was really good for me to be reminded that people do care. People are generally interested and supportive of what we are doing; sometimes it’s easy to forget. We showed the new trailer for the Equality Ride movie and it was a surprise for all of us. I had no idea that they had made a new trailer. This one was longer and showed more things and touched much deeper into the visit at BYU. I cried, as usual. After watching the old trailer dozens and dozens of times I desensitized my self to it, it was good to be reminded that this is going to be a very powerful two months for me and the other riders.

We raised a little over $1,000, which is good news. I am grateful for everyone who came out and I can’t believe that we are leaving in four days.

Love,

Adam Britt