Trillium Policy of Consent
Trillium Gathering is an environment in which the spiritual and bodily sovereignty of each attendee is honored. We each have the right to consent or decline to be touched or acted upon in private, social, and sacred spaces. To that end we present the following guidelines:
- All ritual/workshop leaders will offer a pre-ritual/workshop briefing which will include a description of any physical touching (anointing, hugging, hand-holding, etc.), energetic touching (reiki, smudging, group intoning, collective group trance, etc.), and/or shared food/drink touching (shared loaf from which participants tear pieces, communal horn/chalice, etc.) Ritual/workshop leaders are expected to be prepared to offer inclusive alternatives to all physical, energetic, and sharing-of-consumables for participants;
- Attendees will seek explicit, affirmative consent before touching any other attendee. This may be verbal (“yes!”) or non-verbal (ie. opening arms to accept a hug, or shaking head to decline). Attendees who have existing agreements about touch with each other (parents/children, family members, close friends, romantic partners, etc.) may follow their own agreements with each other.
Attendance at Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering constitutes agreement to abide by this policy.
Attendees failing to comply with Trillium’s consent policy will be spoken with and reminded of the policy. Attendees who continue to choose to not participate in the festival’s culture of consent may be asked to leave the festival venue.
Trillium Anti-Harassment Policy
Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering is committed to providing a meaningful, inclusive festival experience free from harassment. Trillium celebrates and honors the vibrant diversity of beliefs, physical forms and abilities, modes of expression, loveways, ethnicity, and cultural heritage present in our community. Harassment will not be tolerated at the festival.
Attendance at Trillium: ADF Spring Gathering constitutes agreement to abide by this policy.
Harassment includes, but may not be limited to:
- Intentionally offensive verbal statements based on gender, gender expression or identity, sexual or romantic orientation or preference, physical abilities, physical appearance, race, age, religious affiliation or lack thereof, ethnicity, country/region of origin, family structure, political positions, lifestyle choices, or cultural heritage or practices.
- Unwanted sexual advances.
- Unwanted touching (see Consent policy).
- Uninvited, suggestive comments, catcalls, wolf-whistles, etc.
- Overtly sexual or violent displays or behaviors in areas where they are unwelcome.
- Taking/posting photos of attendees without their explicit consent.
- Intentionally intimidating and/or threatening other attendees physically, verbally, magically, or energetically.
- Repeated disruption of presentations or rituals.
- Intentionally “outing” any aspect of another attendee’s identity without their explicit consent.
- Continued individual communication after being asked to stop.
- Encouraging self-harm.
- Intentionally triggering other attendees.
- Overtly racist, sexist, ableist, or ageist jokes.
Harassment does not include;
- Differences of opinion. Your right to not be harassed is not a right to not be disagreed with.
- Inadvertent, unrepeated, mild boundary infractions.
- Frank and respectful discussions of religion, politics, theology, social policy, etc.
- Inadvertent triggering. You are responsible for understanding your limits. If an otherwise respectful conversation or situation is difficult or unsettling to you for personal reasons, you have every right and a responsibility to your own well-being to step away.
- Ill-received jokes (unless the teller, when made aware of the unwelcomeness of the humor, continues to tell similar jokes)
Reporting
If you experience harassment, or witness an attendee being harassed, please speak with a senior festival organizer (a list of organizers is in the front of the festival program and posted at Registration).
If the person engaging in harassing behaviors is one of the organizers, they will recuse themselves from any handling of the situation and will leave the festival venue. Behaviors violating the laws of Virginia will immediately be turned over to the local authorities.
Enforcement
If an attendee is found to be engaging in harassing behaviors, the organizers will take the actions they deem necessary, up to and including asking an attendee to leave the festival. Attendees who refuse to leave after being asked to do so by the organizers will be prosecuted for trespassing.
