The American Civil Liberties Union in SL

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been a force for First Amendment and equal rights awareness since its inception. It is a media savvy organization that continues to use all the tools at its disposal to further its agenda, which is to keep in check abuses of power in all levels of government.

Now, the ACLU has entered SL. The organization joined forces with the Bay Area Video Coalition’s Producer’s Institute to create a simulation of conditions at Camp X-Ray, the now-closed arrival center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, called Gone Gitmo. In keeping with the ACLU’s message, the project was developed to bring attention to the ongoing human rights abuses happening at Gitmo.

Carol Varney, the Director of Development at BAVC, conducted an interview with ACLU’s Constance DeCherney about the creation of Gone Gitmo and the use of SL as an activist tool. Mainly, the ACLU hopes that using SL will help it find an extended community and bring together different constituencies. The ACLU SL plot can also be used as a activist platform in which to contact Senators and Congressmen through SL.