Preparation for giant Rainbow Rights Conference in Montreal in July:
Stockholm – A comparison of policy and treatment of LGBT refugees seeking asylum in the different Nordic nations, the use of rainbow culture to highlight their situation – above and underground – and preparation of material for future conferences both within and beyond the Nordic region: these are the aims of the “Nordic Rainbow Refugees” conference and cultural happening in the Swedish capital on February 18, 2006.
“We know that there are both bright spots and dark tragedies for homosexuals seeking refugee in the Nordic region -- and there is a vital need to exchange information and learn from each other across Nordic borders,” says Bill Schiller of Tupilak (Nordic homo cultural workers), the Nordic Homo Council and the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat in Stockholm.
“We also want to prepare more information for coming human rights conferences – such as the giant “Right to be Different” gathering opening the 1st Out Games in Montreal in July this year, and the 2nd Out Games and rainbow rights conference in Copenhagen in 2009,” Schiller adds.
Making the Refugee Visible Even Beyond the Rainbows
The Stockholm discussions will end with a cultural event making use of photography, dance, music, drama and poetry concentrating on the plight of the homosexual seeking asylum in the Nordic zone.
The pioneering Stockholm gathering will take place at the Nordic Council’s information office, Norden i Fokus – and is a follow-up of the 2-day Nordic conference on honor violence, “Honored to Silence, Honored to Death” among the native and immigrant/refugee communities in the Nordic nations arranged by Norden i Fokus, Tupilak, the Nordic Homo Council and the ILGCN.
tisdagen 28 februari 19.00 Café Aguéli
(Blecktornsgränd 9 T-ban Mariatorget)
Stefan Rindeberg (Göteborg) Sång och Musik
(Val av ny styrelse -- Nytt blod välkommen!!!)
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Kära medlem,
Vi i Tupilak har börjat ett nytt spännande verksamhetsår, tillsammans med Nordic Homo Council och ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network).
Februari 18 diskuterar vi nordiska regnbågs flytktingar och homo kultur på Norden i Fokus (Hantverskargatan 33 16.00-18.00) i Stockholm -- plus kultur kväll på Café Edenborg (Stora Nygatan 35 Gamal Stan 19.00-21.00)
Vi ordar kulturkväll på Galleri Aguéli 17 maj på IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia).
Vi skickar delegationer till Moscow (Nordic Lights Festival -- som en del av ILGCN World Lesbian & Gay Culture Conference) och Jerusalem
(som en del av ILGCN world conference och World Pride).
Vi planer solidaritetshändelse med kolleger i Warsaw, Krakow (Nordic House), Posnan och i Stockholm.
Vi planerar Moonbow veckan i Stockholm – och återigen samarbete med Pride House med seminarier. 4th Nordic Queer Short Film Festival och Moonbow Cabaret senare I år.
Vi planerar även Moonbow festivalar i Tallinn och Riga.
Vi samarbetar med Svenska Amnesty med Film Festival och Koncert i Stockholm i Oktober.
Vi planerar Moonbow ’Festival in Exile’ för Belarus i Minsk, Malmö och Helsingborg på hösten.
Vi planerar Kristallnacht ceremoni 9 november på Hermans i Stockholm.
Hör av dig om du vill vara med!
Bill Schiller, ordf.
http://www.tupilak.se/
Stockholm – An international cultural and political solidarity event in support for rainbow colleagues in Europe’s last dictatorship took place in the Swedish capital September 23-24, 2005 – with seminars, art, song, music, poetry and pledges of future support from a number of human rights organizations.
“Our Nordic-supported events in Minsk have earlier been attacked and harassed by police and threatened by both the regime and neo Nazis – so a “happening in exile” seemed to be the only possibility,” says Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat in Stockholm.
“This meeting is very important for us, since the difficult situation for all NGO human rights group in Belarus is getting worse,” maintains Slava Bortnik, head of the Belarus LGBT Amnesty International group. His visit to Stockholm was made possible by the Swedish Institute.
The Stockholm meeting also included a focus on the lesbian and gay rights situation in Estonia and Latvia – only a few years ago part of the Soviet empire and even today facing homophobic press and politicians, bomb threats and neo Nazi attacks.
Support from the Stockholm Nordic Council Office
“Several Belarus delegates were trying to attend our Moonbow festival in Tallinn this year, but they were stopped at their border,” says Krissu of Mea Culpa of the ILGCN Women’s Secretariat and co-organizer of the pioneering Moonbow festival in Estonia. “We are also still fighting against very negative media coverage of lesbians and gays, and neo Nazis harassing the Pride march.” Her travel to Stockholm was sponsored by the Nordic Council’s information office, Norden i Fokus, which also provided one of the venues for festival seminars.
“The Latvian movement is still plagued by an enormous fear of coming out in a situation where neo Nazis and other homophobes – especially from the large Russian minority -- join forces against lesbians and gays,“ says Swedish veteran activist, Kjell Rindar, who has been teaching at Latvian universities.
Festival participants agreed to join forces to hold an “underground” stage of next year’s ILGCN world homo cultural conference in Minsk -- October, 2006 (see separate press release) and continue with “exile” festivals in Poland and elsewhere to help break the isolation of the lesbian, gay and trans community in Belarus.
Support for such meetings and other solidarity work with Belarus been expressed during the festival by representatives of the Swedish Helsinki Committee for human rights, the LGBT group of Swedish Amnesty, and the Swedish Parliament’s LGBT group.
The follow-up “Moonbow in exile” for Belarus event takes place in London, 7-9 October, 2005 -- organized by the ILGCN Literature Secretariat and others. The “moonbow” comes from the name of the alternative, international events organized in recent years on both sides of the Baltic Sea.
Supporters for the Stockholm event include the ILGCN, the Nordic Homo Council, Tupilak (Nordic homo cultural workers), and the Nordic Rainbow Humanists.
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Information: ilgcn.tupilak.se
ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network)
Discussions continue for a stage in 2006 or later in Istanbul
Stockholm -- The stages of the annual ILGCN World Conference on Lesbian & Gay Culture will be in Moscow: May 24 (part of the first IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) conference in the Russian capital May 24-27 and following the international IDAHO day on May 17), Jerusalem as part of World Pride: August 6-12 and Minsk: October 7-8 (part of the Belarus solidarity events in “exile” and “underground” in this the last dictatorship in Europe.
Plans continue under discussion about a possible stage in Istanbul in 2006 or as soon as possible in support of the courageous Turkish lesbian and gay rights movement facing renewed homophobic attacks from politicians and others.
ILGCN discussions in Montreal ?
“Our original plans to have an ILGCN world conference stage at the giant Montreal “Right to be Different” conference --July 26-29, 2006 will be substituted hopefully by a seminar on ILGCN international solidarity and panelled by a number of ILGCN co-ordinators and cultural ambassadors -- since the large size and number of other sub conferences in Montreal will make it difficult to hold a separate conference on rainbow culture on the sidelines,” says Bill Schiller of the ILGCN Information Secretariat in Stockholm and ILGCN conference co-ordinator.
“But we are convinced that this pioneering conference in Montreal will give a crucial and enormous input into the homo rights movement all over the globe -- especially in Eastern Europe where both the local activists and supporting international brigades are fighting life-and-death battles on the barricades.”
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information: ilgcn.tupilak.se
NEXT “EXILE” FESTIVALS FOR BELARUS IN POLAND, SWEDEN
Stockholm/London -- Plans are underway for next year’s “Moonbow Festivals in Exile for Belarus” in the southern Swedish cities of Malmö and Helsingborg in October, 2006 and Warsaw or another Polish city closer to the border of the Eastern European dictatorship of Belarus.
This follows the highly successful “festivals in exile” for colleagues in Belarus held this year in London October 7-9. and earlier in Stockholm in September
“The London event was very important for the gay and lesbian movement in my country,” says Vitali of Belarus, who told participants about the worsening situation for human rights groups and the rainbow movement there.
An effort to send a message of support to colleagues in Belarus via the Belarus Embassy in London was met by embassy staff threatening to call the police.
“We very pleased to have included seminars, art work, literary readings, music, theater performances, a visit to a London gay art gallery and a historical gay tour of London as part of our festival program,” says Ian Stewart, of the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Literature Secretariat and the Paradise Press.
“We were also very happy to have so many groups making presentations during the festival such as gay activist organizations Outrage, CHE and Gay & Lesbian Humanists as well as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Gay Choir, Tupilak (Nordic homo cultural workers), Nordic Homo Council and others.
ILGCN, Tuplak awards presented in London
During the London event, the ILGCN “Clio’s Silver Cup” for 2005 for outstanding contributions to homo history was presented to co-winner British teacher Sue Sanders for her launching the first U.K. Lesbian & Gay History Month (the other co-winner was the first rainbow museum exhibit in Finnish history in the city of Tampere).
This year’s ILGCN/Paradise Press “Sappho in Paradise” award for publishing and library work was presented to the Library Project of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe.
Tupilak’s “Golden Tupilak” award for outstanding international solidarity was handed over to British gay activist, Peter Tatchell – a man who has won international attention for such actions as trying to arrest Zimbabean President Mugabe for his homophobic statements.
“Because of threats from both the homophobic Belarus regime and neo Nazis forcing us to cancel recent plans to hold a rainbow event in Minsk, we’ve decided with Belarus collegues to continue our festivals in exile next year,” says Bill Schiller of the ILGCN Information Secretariat and organizer of the solidarity event in Stockholm in September.
“We hope to work with the Polish Campaign Against Homophobia and the Swedish Anti-Racist Film Days with the 2006 Moonbow “exile” festivals – a name we give to our low-budget, international solidarity events taking place every year on both sides of the Baltic Sea,” Schiller concludes.
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