Artist/activist iO Tillett Wright to keynote Harvey Milk Dinner at IUPUI
INDIANAPOLIS -- The artist whose photographs have kick-started conversations on issues of sexuality and gender across the U.S. will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Harvey Milk Dinner at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Activist iO Tillett Wright is the featured speaker for the fourth annual Harvey Milk Dinner at IUPUI. The event takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in Room 450 of the IUPUI Campus Center, 420 University Blvd.
Traveling across the country, Wright is photographing anyone “who is anything other than 100 percent straight” for inclusion in a photographic project titled ”Self-Evident Truths.” Using photos, Wright hopes to introduce people who are against the idea of gay marriage to a vast number of people who are LBGTQ in order to promote the rights of the latter.
“This is my contribution to the civil rights fight of my generation. I challenge you to look in the faces of these people and tell them that they deserve anything less than any other human being,” Wright says in a video based on her first 300 photographs.
The Harvey Milk Dinner celebrates the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at IUPUI. It is named in honor of Harvey Milk, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 1977 to 1978 as the nation’s first openly gay elected official.
The dinner is one of a dozen events being sponsored by IUPUI in observance of October as Pride Month. Other activities include a panel discussion at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6, in the Campus Center featuring clergy sharing how their various faith traditions fully welcome LGBT families. A complete list of activities is available online.
The 2013 Harvey Milk Dinner is supported by the IUPUI Advocates for Sexual Equality, the IUPUI LGBT Faculty Staff Council, the IUPUI Office of Alumni Relations and the IU Alumni Association.
Online registration for the dinner is open through Friday, Oct. 4. Tickets are $20 for IUPUI students and $45 for all others, including community guests.
