söndag 14 juni 2009

RAINBOW FLAGS ON SWEDISH BALTIC ISLAND

Tupilak, Nordic Rainbow Council, ILGCN, Nordic Rainbow Humanists:



Visby – A successful week of discussions, art and photos, Nordic CD music and performances took place June 29-July 3 at the" Almedalen Week" in this capital of this eastern Baltic Swedish island of Gotland -- during the biggest political, human rights and cultural week of the Swedish summer.

"We were pleased to be once again at the large silo in Visy harbor, " says Bill Schiller of the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat – Stockholm -- together with some 25 other internationally-minded human rights organizations.

Tupilak also participated in other LGBT discussions among the over 1,000 seminars and other events during the week, pointing out the urgent need to help Nordic colleagues on the other side of the Baltic Sea by criticizing the Lithuanian Parliament's ban on all positive information about homosexuality and the program of "Vilnius – European Cultural Capital 2009" deliberately ignoring rainbow culture.

Bifrost Award to Baltic Square and Fellow Participants

During the week, Tupilak handed out the first of this year's "Bifrost Award" to the Östersjö Torget "for promoting rainbow rights and culture and proving that human rights groups working together can create a strong voice for international solidarity." The 2nd of this year's winner will be announced in September at the giant Gothenburg Book Fair. (Bifrost is the old Norse word for "rainbow" -- linking the world of the Viking gods and human beings – and honors today's hetereosexual-homosexual bridge- building.

At the "Baltic Square" presentation by Balkan women planning to repeat the "Almedalen" solidarity week in Belgrade this fall, Tupilak promised to send a delegation to the "Freja Forum" in the Serbian capital 13-15 November.

Helping man the Tupilak tent in Visby this time was the Swedish Peace organization, Peace Quest International.

More information: info@tupilak.org