I L G C N | The International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network

2012-02-14T13:31:00.003+01:00

ERATO-- publication of the ILGCN Information Secretariat -

Stockholm

December 2011- January 2012
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Art by Alice Tsymbarevich of Estonia

First of 2012. Next stop Riga, February 6

Baltic Solidarity Cruise from Sweden

Swedish visit to the LGBT center in Tallinn

Tallinn -- The year's first Moonbow solidarity cruise from Stockholm across the Baltic Sea arrived in the Estonian capital on January 10 and inlcuded a visit to the new, downtown LGBT Center.

"We are working hard to gather a large Estonian LGBT delegatin to the 4th Baltic Pride in Riga," says Hanna Kannelmae of the center and of Estonian Gay Youth as well as a board member of the Balttic Pride committee working with the annual rotating Pride events moving from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius. "But of course co-operation with Sweden is also high on our list."

"We would like to arrange an Estonian LGBT delegation to Stockholm as well, says Eero Raun at the Swedish-Estonian meeting at the Tallinn center, which also displays a number of art work and photography of Estonian LGBT artists.

"I am very happy to add my work to Tuplak's travelling international art and photo exhibition," says Alice Tsymbarevich "....and I'm planning to visit Stockholm in the near future to join in an exhibition there."

"We are especially pleased to coontinue our contacs with LGBT collegues in Estonia -- contact we started even before the end of Soviet occupation," maintains Bill Schiller of Tupilak and the ILGCN. "Afterall, Tallinn is Stockolm's closet capital city!" and Tupilak was created 20 years ago with the urging of second generation Estonians whose family had fleed from Nazi German and Soviet occupation that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are part of the Nordic family."

The next Moonbows cruise across the Balttic iis planned for Riga on February 7 and is also to incude a visit to the new LGBT center in the Latvian capital and to meet organizers of the Baltic Pride.
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August 2-3, 2012 during Pride
1st Nordic LGBT Workplace Forum & Career Fair in Stockholm

Copenhagen -- Danish organizers of the lst Nordic LGBT Workplace Forum and Career Fair have contacted the ILGCN and Tupilak in Stockholm to ensure more Nordic rainbow art and other cultural contribution and human rights discussion at the Stockholm event planned for August 2-3, 2012.

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Gotland – October, Rejkjavik/Torshamn – November, Gothenburg - December?

Rainbow Festivals on the Nordic Islands

Visby: Dedicating the first LGBT monument in the Nordic region
(Photo by Willi Reichhold)

Reykjavik/Torshavn/Visby/Gothenburg – The ILGCN Information Secretariat is searching for funds for a special focus on the LGBT struggle and cultural scene in the “fringes” of the vast Nordic region which stretches close to the shores of North America to the Russian border.

“The “Nordic Rainbow Island Festival” is to include seminars and discussions, film screenings, art and photography exhibitions and music, song and dance cabarets for and about the islands in the Nordic zone.

One aim is to display to neighboring islands as well as mainland organizations the rich cultural life of the very courageous people determined to raise the rainbow flags on the islands despite harsh conditions, “ says Bill Schiller of the ILGCN Information Secretariat. (continued on page 4) .

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Stockholm Film Festival, Swedish Top Award Nominations
LGBT Films in Swedish Spotlight

Stockholm -- LGBT film themes at the annual international film festival in the Swedish capital and nominations for Gold Bugs -- Sweden's equvialent of the Hollywood Oscars.

Getting wide publicty and much attention was the US-Iranian film "Forbidden Love" by Iranian-born Maryam Keshavarz about the struggle of two lesbians facing intolerance and homophobia, and the German film "Romeos" about a trans girl trying to act as a boy while falling in love with a gay playboy.

In the nominations for the Gold Bug, actress Liv Mjönes was nominated for best supporting actress in "Love Stain" (in Swedish " Kyss Mig" -- Kiss Me". -- and find each other playing young lesbian who ends a relationship after falling in love with a b eatuiful woman about to marry her long-term boy friend with both women struggling to end their relationships.

Speaking to Erato, she said she was very proud to get the role and fell in love with the script when she received it. She was also proud to be in Sweden's first feature film concentrating on adult lesbian relationships -- following the success of "Show me Love" ("Fucking Åmål" in Swedish) about two teen-age lesbians defying the intolerance of colleagues in the small Swedish town of Åmål.

The annual international film festival in the Swedish west coast city of Gothenberg -- Sweden's official international festival and the biggest in the Nordic area, begins at the end of January and once again is giving high prirority to LGBT films. More on this in the next Erato.

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Year's first meeting in Stockholm

Hallongrottan Rainbow Book and Cultural Center

Stockholm -- The first Tupilak monthly rainbow cultural session took place at the ILGCN-prize winning Hallongrottan cultutral center in Stockholm , including photogray from Greenland by Sweden's Linnea Ornstein and art work of Alice Tsymbarevich of Estonia.

These sessions usually take place on thee last Sunday of the moth, but the next session is booked for February 19th.

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Rainbow Festivals on the Nordic Islands.....

(Continued from page 1) "LGBT communities on the Nordic islands face “brain drains” as islanders flee from isolation and small population sizes to the mainland – deserting the island where “coming out” is often difficult if not dangerous, where distances are far and travel expensive which hinders travel to other island and to other Nordic nations, where LGBT cultural events, companies and venues are often few in number and where internationally-known LGBT cultural workers often skip tours to the islands – preferring the bigger events in larger, mainland cities,” Schiller adds.

  From Denmark’s Greenland in the West to Finland’s Åland Islands in the East

   Another aim is to bring together LGBT activists and cultural workers from Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, the Faroese and Åland islands, Öland, Gotland, the Gothenburg and the Åbo archipelagoes and the sprawling Stockholm archipelago – as well as mainland LGBT organizations which could do much much more to support LGBT island life.

    The 10 seminars already scheduled:

1. Stopping the “LGBT brain-drain” to the mainlands.
2. Boosting LGBT cultural activities in the islands.
3. Increasing cultural and activist exchanges between the islands.
4. Getting more support from mainland LGBT organizations and institutions.
5. Supporting crucial LGBT business, companies, venues on the islands.
6. Creating more LGBT-friendly and LGBT-owned facilities for the retiredand the elderly – encouraging more “exiled” islanders to return home.
7. LGBT Humanists: combating religious dragons on the islands, and co-operating with the London-based international LGBT humanists in GALHA.
8. Diminishing isolation – attracting internationally-known LGBT cultural workers and performers to venues on the islands.
9. Attracting international LGBT tourists to these islands which are among the most exotic, beautiful and least-exploited spots on earth.
10. Creating more LGBT monuments – following the example of Visby in Gotland (see Tupilak websitewww.tupilak.org).

                                     Nordic Rainbow Island Festival 2012

    “The preliminary plan is to hold stage 1 of this year’s island festival in Visby on Gotland in October and stage 2 in Reykjavik or Torshavn in November and the 3rd stage in Gothenburg in December. We hope that such an event could help combat ugly homophobia in same places in the Nordic region such as the Faroe Islands – illustrating that rainbow life in the Nordic zone is not just big parties and giant parades in the safety of big city security, but also at times a life-and-death battle between a handful of isolated activists facing arrogant, violence-prone neo-nazis and right-wing religious fanatics encouraged by an intolerant mass media,” concludes Schiller.

     The plan is to discuss festival plans at thete International Square in Visby during the giant, annual Almedalen politicians and human rights week on Gotland this July 1-8, and at the 1st Nordic LGBT Workplace Forum and Career Fair in Stockholm, 2-3 August.

2012-01-13T07:45:00.109+01:00

ERATO — covering rainbow cultural workers & friends

ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat

www.ilgcn.tupilak. org Stockholm August – November, 2011

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Belarus Pride press conference (Photo by Willi Reichhold)

Swedish-Ukrainian-Belarus joint rainbow solidarity events

Minsk Rainbow Meeting

Minsk – Swedish and Ukrainian queer delegations met with Belarus colleagues in the Belarus capital October 20-23, 2011—the 2nd stage in the 3-nation project following a similar meeting in Kiev in October – also Minsk supported by the Swedish Institute, the official body promoting Swedish international exchange. (Continued on page 2)

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Swedish-Ukrainian-Belarus LGBT culture co-operation

Tupilak/ILGCN Visit to Kiev

Kiev – A Tupilak delegation made a September 2-4 2011 visit here with Ukrainian, Belarus and Swedish LGBT activists and cultural workers in Kiev – a trip made possible thanks to support from the Swedish Institute.

This included performances, art and photo exhibits, films, lively At the Insight Office discussions and seminars, visits to the women’s organization Insight and the office of the Men’s Alliance, as well as planning for future rainbow co-operation between the three countries. This was the first of three such visits including Minsk and the Crimea in June, 2012.

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(Photo by Willi Reichhold)

1st NORDIC/BALTIC LGBT MONUMENT INAUGURATED

Visby —The first LGBT memorial monument in the entire Nordic-Baltic region has been inaugurated on the rocky  shoreline of the capital of this Swedish Baltic island of Gotland on July 6, 2011 – honoring the LGBT people persecuted, harassed, imprisoned and murdered over the centuries in this Nordic nation and around the globe.

     This joins the growing number of LGBT monuments --  in Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona and other cities as well as former Nazi concentration camps  -- and has taken place during the giant political and human (rights week Almedalen – the biggest   Continued on page 3)

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New ILGCN Art & Photo Secretariat
Posnan – Prof. Pawel Lezkowitz is the secretary general of the brand new ILGCN Art & Photo Secretariat – based in this Polish city and working together with our ILGCN colleagues in Denmark specializing in lesbian art. He has also received the 2011 “Orfeo Imago” award for his outstanding publication of international LGBT works and curating a number of highly-praised LGBT art exhbiitions – including the pioneering “Ars Homo Erotica” at the National Art Museum in Warsaw during Europride.

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NORDIC/BALTIC MONUMENT INAUGURATED….

(continued from page 1) such event in the Swedish summer, only a few steps from the annual International Square promoting global solidarity.

Left Party leader Lars Ohly (left) (Photo by Willi Reichhold)

Speakers at the inauguration ceremony included Swedish Liberal Party parliamentarian, Barbro Westerholm, Swedish Left Party leader Lars Ohly, national Swedish LGBT organization RFSL chair, Ulrika Vesterlund, head of the Swedish Red Cross – Gotland, Göran Wahlquist, Janne Nordquist of the Swedish national sexual education organization RFSU and head of Africa Groups – Gotland, and Bill Schiller of Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers).

“We’ve come a long way since LGBT people in Sweden demonstrated against the old “sickness label” for homosexuality but we still have work to do – especially internationally,” says Barbro Westerholm.

“This monument of stones is a good initiative to help make the persecution and violence against LGBT people visible -- but we must work to make this a permanent tribute to the LGBT people in Sweden and around the world, ” says Lars Ohly.

“This is a peoples’s monument – since both former and present Swedish governments have declined to support the idea. Anyone can attack out stones… any of us can rebuild them and add new stones . We hope this will initiate others to create LGBT monuments elsewhere in the Nordic and Baltic region,” says Bill Schiller.

The inauguration message reads: “Slagna till Döds, Dödade med Tystnad. Beaten to Death, Silenced to Death … in honor of the lesbians, gays, trans and bisexual persons harassed, discriminated, beaten, arrested, imprisoned, executed by the state and murdered in the streets over the centuries – in Sweden, elsewhere in the Nordic region, and around the globe. “

The event is also supported by the Nordic Rainbow Humanists, the Nordic Rainbow Council, the Nordic-Polish-Baltic-Russian-Belarus Network and the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Network) Information Secretariat – Stockholm.

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Christina Kjelsson

Award to Swedish singer, musician, composer

Rainbows at Gothenburg Book Fair

Gothenburg – At the 2011 Gothenburg Book and Library Fair in Setpeberm, the biggest annual cultural eent in the Nordic region – Tupilak and the ILGCN once again participated in human rights discussions and made stage presentations at the International Square – as well as presenting this year’s “Sowelu” Tupilak award for outstanding cultural contributions to Sweden’s Chritina Jkellsson, pionner singer, musican and composer whose works are often part of LGBT events in the Nordic region and beyond.

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Malawi Humanist Receives Nordic Award

Oslo – George Thindwa, leader of the Associatin for Secular Humanism in the southern African republic of Malawi, has received the 2011 Nordic Rainbow Humanist Award from the hands of the Nordic Rainbow Humanists’ Rolf Solheim of Norway at the International Humansit Conference held in the Norwegian capital.

The award motivation cited Thindwa’s and his colleagues courageous and public support of human rights and LGBT rights in defiance of the severe homophobia and public condemnation of rainbow rights and identity and government plans to worsen legislation concerning especially lesbian and other LGBT rights.

Thindwa has also reported a dramtic encounter with with hunters in Malawi and his arrest for intervening on behalf ot he women persecuted in a witch hunt.

Thidwa protecting women accused of witch craft

"We were very happy to get this recommendation from an earlier prize winner, Leo Igwe and his colleagues of the Nigerian human movement, who was finally able to receive his award diploma in person at a GALHA ceremony in London in September (see Erato May 2010) at an IDAHO event in the British capital in May," says Bill Schiller, NRH international secretary.

Earlier Nordic Rainbow Humanists awards have honored outstanding contributions to LGBT human rights struggles from leading LGBT and heterosexual humanists in Britain, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Romania.

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Minsk Rainbow Meeting …

(Continued from page 1) and co- operation. "We were very pleased to have had this international inputw into our Belarus Pride,” says Natasha P. of the GayBelarus organization. “And to have once again Swedes joining us in Minsk!”

Despite the ban on any Pride parade, Belarus and foreign LGBT visitors “outwalked” any potential homophobic followers through numerous city streets in different groups, jumped into vehicles and re-appeared in a distant suburb – unfurling rainbow flags, marching a short stretch in the streets and cheering the release of a giant rainbow banner carried to the skies by large helium-filled balloons – to the delight of a crowd of Belarus newspaper, radio and television journalists.

                                                     Interested and supportive Belarus media

     “We wery pleased and surprised to see so many Belarus and Polish journalists present both at the GayBelarus office press conference and at the parade – and the positive response and intelligent questions – and great coverage in the media, ” maintains Bill Schiller, Swedish Radio journalist and international secretary of Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers). “And we are very happy that our 3-way meeting could be part of Belarus Pride – no doubt one of the most important Prides in Europe today.”

     The meeting included country-be-country presentations, seminars and discussions, Swedish film screenings and music provided by well-known Belarus singers and musicians calling for democratic rule in this the last dictatorship in East Europe, as well as a musical and dance-filled performance by members of the internationally-famous Belarus Underground Theater – banned by the regime.

     “Our meetings in Kiev and Minsk have been very beneficial and show what our organizations can learn from – and teach each other,” says Olena Shevchenko of the women’s organization Insight of Kiev, who also informed the delegates about the importance of working against the Ukrainian government’s and parliament’s plans to crack down on positive information about homosexuality.

      During the visit, the three national delegations also visited the office of the internationally-finance Belarus organization working with men having sex with men and combating HIV and AIDS.

    “These meetings have given us new inspiration on how to work in new ways for LGBT rights also using rainbow culture as a weapon against discrimination and phobias – including the discrimination of those with HIV and AIDS,” says Taras L. of the Men’s Alliance – Kiev.

The visit also included displays of art and photo exhibitions from Tupilak and the ILGCN (International queer cultural network) which has works from nearly 40 nations and now has new brand donations from the Ukraine and Belarus.

More Belarus photos and art work on the way

“I was very impressed with the international exhibit and will create a special Belarus exhibition at our next event” says journalist/photographer Alexander P. also editor of the biggest LGBT website in Belarus,.

“We are working out plans for long-term Swedish-Belarus-Ukrainian rainbow co-operation – with our next event scheduled for June 1-2, 2012 in the Crimean port of Semiez,” says Slava Bortnik from Belarus Amnesty International and his nation’s second city, Gomel. “Overcoming the isolation of LGBT people in Belarus is crucial for our survival.”

“We hope that the Swedish Institute will continue to provide assistance to make this future human rights and rainbow cultural co-operation possible between East and West,” concludes Bill Schiller, project co-ordinator.
_________________________________________________________________

Stockholm: Special input from Ukraine and Hungary

Olena Shevchnko in Stockholm (Photos by Jussi of Finland)

Part of Budapest Trio

"Nordic Fire” Salute to East Europeans

   Stockholm -- The first Nordic Fire on Eastern European Rainbow Barricades festival took place in the Swedish capital November 25-27, 2011 with invited guests from Ukraine and Hungary as well as presentations on LGBT situations in Belgrade, Minsk, Riga, Helsinki and Bucharest.

      "We are fighting against the same law proposal against positive information about homosexuality now spreading to more Russian provinces," says Olena Shevchenko of the women's organization, Insight - Kiev, new ILGCN (international rainbow cultural network) cultural ambassador from Ukraine.

    Folk and classic music, song, and dance was provided at several of the festival venues by Tamás Lovas,Károly Varga and Sándor Fehér of the Continuo Trio of Budapest, the ILGCN cltural ambassadors of Hungary.

     "We are working with LGBT groups in St. Petersburg and in the Balkans, and hope more Helsinki Human Rights Committees in other countries will join us in work with LGBT human rights," says Peter Öholm ofCivil Rights Defenders (formally the Swedish Helsinki Human Rights Committee).

                               Tupilak and ILGCN awards for Swede, Poles

    At the Nordic Fire session at the CRD offices in the Stockholm Gamla Stan island, Swedish Liberal Party parliamentarian Barbro Westerholm received the annual Tupilak "Bifrost" awards honoring heterosexual bridge-builders uniting the LGBT and the heterosexual communities both in Sweden and abroad.

   The Polish Institute - Stockholm received the annual ILGCN "Rainbow Iceberg" award for promoting Polish and Swedish LGBT cultural exchange and for bringing Polish LGBT women and men to different Swedish Pride events and for promoting Polish and international art exhibitions and publications.

    "Thanks for this fine award. This appreciation for our work with this fanatic and moving motivation really means a lot to us," says Michal Piotrowski, project leader at the Polish Institute.

    Also at the CRD, Bill Schiller described the long history of Tupilak & ILGCN involvement with Eastern European colleagues and the emphasis on mutual exchange. "We were very impressed with the mutual interaction of LGBT groups in the Ukraine and Belarus with our Swedish groups," says Schiller over the recent 3-nation meetings in Kiev and Minsk made possible with support from the Swedish Institute -- the official body promoting international co-operation.

    RFSL chairperson Ulrika Westerlund also described the national Swedish LGBT organization's extensive international work with the Baltic states, Uganda and elsewhere, "The situation in Latvia is hardly easy and even those few open LGBT activists don't get much support from often very critical LGBT colleagues," says Kjell Rindar, former RFSL chairman and teacher at Latvian universities.

    "We are very happy to have had the financial support of ROHS (Swedish national LGBT solidarity organization) to make this min-festival "between" Stockholm Prides possible," says Bill Schiller, international secretary of Tupilak (Nordic rainbows cultural workers) and secretary general of the ILGCN'sInformation Secretariat in Stockholm.

     Alexander L. described the turbulent situation and extensive homophobia Serbian. (Belgrade is to be the site of one of the stages of next year's ILGCN world conference, along with Rio de Janeiro and the Crimean town of Seimiz.) while Finnish photographer Jussi Jässkeläinen described his work with Bucharest and Helsinki Prides.

Films, Music, Photography, Discussions at Posithivagruppen

"We are pleased to have another Tupilak event at our premises," states Ola Ståhle of thePosithivagruppen (HIV positive men having sex with men) office, and we are happy to have colleagues from the Baltic states at our summer camps and hope to join in future Tupilak and ILGCN exchanges in Eastern Europe."

    Films by Swedish Tupilak member Willi Reichhold described the recent Swedish-Ukrainian-Belarussolidarity visit to Kiev, the summer inauguration ceremony in Visby of the first Nordic LGBT monument on the shoreline of the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland and the"Global Survival" journey of plants and human beings in harsh conditions around the world.

    Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic and Eastern European works from the Tupilak & ILGCN Travelling Art & Photography Exhibition were displayed at all the festival venues including new photo series from Belarus and  the Ukraine, and LGBT CD music from Poland and the Nordic nations were played at festival venues as well.

    Other foreign visitors taking part in discussions at the CRD office, the Bio Rio, Posithivagruppen and the LGBT cultural center Hallongrottan came from Norway, Finland, Kenya and Somalia.

                                        Next stop: Estonia, Russia, Belarus

     "We hope the next Nordic Fire festival in Stockholm at the end of next March or April will focus on Swedish and Nordic LGBT co-operation with Estonia, Russia and Belarus," concludes Bill Schiller. "Once again we'll ask our Tupilak colleagues and the national LGBT organizations in the Nordic region to join us. We hope the Nordic Fire festival can be duplicated elsewhere in the Nordic region -- and we'll discuss this at coming Nordic-Baltic-Polish-Russian-Belarus Rainbow Network meetings coming up in Stockholm and other Nordic capitals during 2012."
______________________________________

ILGCN Secretariats

Information: Stockholm www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

New: Art & Photography Poznan pawel.leszowicz@gmail.com

Literature: London istewart@alumni.sfu. ca

History: Minneapolis trett007@umn.edu

Eastern Europe: Istanbul/Ankara nevin@kaosgl.org
Berlin c.delamotte@googlemail.com
Warsaw santi@santi.net.pl

Film & Film Festivals: Riga andrejs.visockis@gmail.com

North America: Toronto michaelgfroerer@yahoo. ca.

______________________________________

ILGCN World Rainbow Culture Conference stages 2012

1^st stage: Simeiz, Crimea June 1-3

2^nd stage Belgrade (date coming)

3^rd stage Rio de Janeiro (date coming)

2011-12-12T10:07:00.004+01:00

Olena Shevchenko, in Stockholm (Photos by Jussi Jässkeläinen)

Trio Continuo - Budapest

Special input from Ukraine and Hungary
Stockholm: 1st Nordic Fire Salutes East Europeans

    Stockholm -- The first Nordic Fire on Eastern European Rainbow Barricades festival took place in the Swedish capital November 25-27, 2011 with invited guests from Ukraine and Hungary as well as presentations on LGBT situations in Belgrade, Minsk, Riga, Helsinki and Bucharest.

     "We are fighting against the same law proposal against positive information about homosexuality now spreading to more Russian provinces," says Olena Shevchenko of the women's organization, Insight - Kiev, new ILGCN (international rainbow cultural network) cultural ambassador from Ukraine.

    Folk and classic music, song, and dance was provided at several of the festival venues by Tamás Lovas, Károly Varga and Sándor Fehér of the Continuo Trio of Budapest, the ILGCN cltural ambassadors of Hungary.

   "We are working with LGBT groups in St. Petersburg and in the Balkans, and hope more Helsinki Human Rights Committees in other countries will join us in work with LGBT human rights," says Peter Öholm of Civil Rights Defenders (formally the Swedish Helsinki Human Rights Committee).

                                    Tupilak and ILGCN awards for Swede, Poles

      At the Nordic Fire session at the CRD offices in the Stockholm Gamla Stan island, Swedish Liberal Party parliamentarian Barbro Westerholm received the annual Tupilak "Bifrost" awards honoring heterosexual bridge-builders uniting the LGBT and the heterosexual communities both in Sweden and abroad.

     The Polish Institute - Stockholm received the annual ILGCN "Rainbow Iceberg" award for promoting Polish and Swedish LGBT cultural exchange and for bringing Polish LGBT women and men to different Swedish Pride events and for promoting Polish and international art exhibitions and publications.

    "Thanks for this fine award. This appreciation for our work with this fanatic and moving motivation really means a lot to us," says Michal Piotrowski, project leader at the Polish Institute.

    Also at the CRD, Bill Schiller described the long history of Tupilak & ILGCN involvement with Eastern European colleagues and the emphasis on mutual exchange. "We were very impressed with the mutual interaction of LGBT groups in the Ukraine and Belarus with our Swedish groups," says Schiller over the recent 3-nation meetings in Kiev and Minsk made possible with support from the Swedish Institute -- the official body promoting international co-operation.

   RFSL chairperson Ulrika Westerlund also described the national Swedish LGBT organization's extensive international work with the Baltic states, Uganda and elsewhere, "The situation in Latvia is hardly easy and even those few open LGBT activists don't get much support from often very critical LGBT colleagues," says Kjell Rindar, former RFSL chairman and teacher at Latvian universities.

     "We are very happy to have had the financial support of ROHS (Swedish national LGBT solidarity organization) to make this min-festival "between" Stockholm Prides possible," says Bill Schiller, international secretary of Tupilak (Nordic rainbows cultural workers) and secretary general of the ILGCN's Information Secretariat in Stockholm.

    Alexander L. described the turbulent situation and extensive homophobia Serbian. (Belgrade is to be the site of one of the stages of next year's ILGCN world conference, along with Rio de Janeiro and the Crimean town of Seimiz.) while Finnish photographer Jussi Jässkeläinen described his work with Bucharest and Helsinki Prides.

                                 Films, Music, Photography, Discussions at Posithivagruppen

     "We are pleased to have another Tupilak event at our premises," states Ola Ståhle of the Posithivagruppen (HIV positive men having sex with men) office, and we are happy to have colleagues from the Baltic states at our summer camps and hope to join in future Tupilak and ILGCN exchanges in Eastern Europe."

LGBT Monument - Visby

(Photo by Willi Reichhold)

    Films by Swedish Tupilak member Willi Reichhold described the recent Swedish-Ukrainian-Belarus solidarity visit to Kiev, the summer inauguration ceremony in Visby of the first Nordic LGBT monument on the shoreline of the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland and the "global survival" journey of plants and human beings in harsh conditions around the world.

    Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic and Eastern European works from the Tupilak & ILGCN Travelling Art & Photography Exhibition were displayed at all the festival venues, including new photo series from Belarus and the Ukraine, and LGBT CD music from Poland and the Nordic nations were played at festival venues as well.

      Other foreign visitors taking part in discussions at the CRD office, the Bio Rio, Posithivagruppen and the LGBT cultural center Hallongrottan came from Norway, Finland, Kenya and Somalia.

                                                                      Next stop: Estonia, Russia, Belarus

"We hope the next Nordic Fire festival in Stockholm at the end of next March will focus on Swedish and Nordic LGBT co-operation with Estonia, Russia and Belarus," concludes Bill Schiller. "Once again we'll ask our Tupilak colleagues and the national LGBT organizations in the Nordic region to join us. We hope the Nordic Fire festival can be duplicated elsewhere in the Nordic region -- and we'll discuss this at coming Nordic-Baltic-Polish-Russian-Belarus Rainbow Network meetings coming up in Stockholm and other Nordic capitals during 2012."
************************

2011-09-15T13:44:00.089+02:00

Nordic Fire on Eastern European Rainbow Barricades

-- a mini-festival in Stockholm -- November 25-27, 2011.

Swedes, Belarus visit to Women's
Insight - Kiev                                                                                                                             Continuo Trio - Budapest

Special guests from Hungary, Ukraine, Finland, etc.. . Local experts on Belarus, Latvia, Romania, Poland.

Seminars, Discussions, Art, & Photography, Films, Performances, Award ceremonies.

Venues:

Civil Rights Defenders office (Gamla Stan) -- Friday, November 25      (12.00)

Bio Rio (Hornstull) -- Friday, November 25    (16.00)

POSITHIVAGRUPPEN (Skanstull) -- Saturday, November 26   (13.00)

Hallongrottan (Hornstull) -- Sunday, November 27   (17.00)

CD's and art work from the Nordic region and Eastern Europe

No entrance fee.

______________________________________________________________

Swedish-Ukrainian-Belarus LGBT Cultural Meeting in Minsk
Successful Tupilak/ILGCN Visit to Belarus

    Minsk/Stockholm – Swedish and Ukrainian queer delegations met with Belarus colleagues in the Belarus capital October 20-23,

Belarus Pride press conference 2011—the 2nd stage in the 3-nation project following a similar meeting in Kiev in October – also Minsk supported by the Swedish Institute, the official body promoting Swedish international exchange and co- operation.

"We were very pleased to have had this international input into our Belarus Pride,” says Natasha P. of the GayBelarus organization. “And to have once again Swedes joining us in Minsk!”

   Despite the ban on any Pride parade, Belarus and foreign LGBT visitors “outwalked” any potential homophobic followers through numerous city streets in different groups, jumped into vehicles and re-appeared in a distant suburb – unfurling rainbow flags, marching a short stretch in the streets and cheering the release of a giant rainbow banner carried to the skies by large helium-filled balloons – to the delight of a crowd of Belarus newspaper, radio and television journalists.

                                   Interested and supportive Belarus media

      We wery pleased and surprised to see so many Belarus and Polish journalists present both at the GayBelarus office press conference and at the parade – and the positive response and intelligent questions – and great coverage in the media, ” maintains Bill Schiller, Swedish Radio journalist and international secretary of Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers). “And we are very happy that our 3-way meeting could be part of Belarus Pride – no doubt one of the most important Prides in Europe today.”

    The meeting included country-be-country presentations, seminars and discussions, Swedish film screenings and music provided by well-known Belarus singers and musicians calling for democratic rule in this the last dictatorship in East Europe, as well as a musical and dance-filled performance by members of the internationally-famous Belarus Underground Theater – banned by the regime.

    “Our meetings in Kiev and Minsk have been very beneficial and show what our organizations can learn from – and teach each other,” says Olena Shevchenko of the women’s organization Insight of Kiev, who also informed the delegates about the importance of working against the Ukrainian government’s and parliament’s plans to crack down on positive information about homosexuality.

    During the visit, the three national delegations also visited the office of the internationally-finance Belarus organization working with men having sex with men and combating HIV and AIDS.

     “These meetings have given us new inspiration on how to work in new ways for LGBT rights also using rainbow culture as a weapon against discrimination and phobias – including the discrimination of those with HIV and AIDS,” says Taras L. of the Men’s Alliance – Kiev.

      The visit also included displays of art and photo exhibitions from Tupilak and the ILGCN (International queer cultural network) which has works from nearly 40 nations and now has new brand donations from the Ukraine and Belarus.

                                 More Belarus photos and art work on the way

    “I was very impressed with the international exhibit and will create a special Belarus exhibition at our next event” says journalist/photographer Alexander N., also editor of the biggest LGBT website in Belarus,.

     “We are working out plans for long-term Swedish-Belarus-Ukrainian rainbow co-operation – with our next event scheduled for June 1-2, 2012 in the Crimean port of Semiez,” says Slava Bortnik from Belarus Amnesty International and his nation’s second city, Gomel. “Overcoming the isolation of LGBT people in Belarus is crucial for our survival.”

     “We hope that the Swedish Institute will continue to provide assistance to make this future human rights and rainbow cultural co-operation possible between East and West,” concludes Bill Schiller, project co-ordinator and also secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat-Stockholm.

……………………………………..

More information: www.tupilak.org and www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

Photos by Elin Nordlinder and Willi Reichhold, Tupilak, Sweden
_________________________________________________________________

Nordic annual mega event in Swedish west coast port

Tupilak at Gothenburg Book & Library Fair September, 2011
Christina Kjellsson

      Gothenburg - Tupilak participated once again at the Gothenburg Book and Library Fair 2011 September 22-25 – the biggest annual cultural event in the Nordic region – at the International Square, both handing out printed material, displaying books and CD’s, meeting the public and presenting form the main stage Tupilak’s work with Eastern European colleagues.

          Included in the stage presentation was the Tupilak annual “Sowelu” award presentation to Swedish singer, musician and song writer Christina Kjellsson, who came up to receive her award. She was honored for her year’s-long contribution to the Nordic rainbow cultural scene and for the use of her music via CD’s at Tupilak events at Nordic, Baltic and Eastern European rainbow solidarity events.

        Tupilak shared its stand this year with the newly-created Göteborgs Rättighets Center (Gothenburgs Human Rights Center) – including RFSL-Gothenburg, Homan (working with rainbow refugees) and other LGBT organizations. At the stand , art and photography from the Travelling Tupilak & ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Art & Photo Exhibition were on display.

_____________________________________________________________

Kiev: Men´s Alliance

Women's Insight Office, Kiev (photos by Willi Reichhold, Sweden)

Swedish-Ukrainian-Belarus LGBT culture co-operation

TUPILAK VISIT TO KIEV - stage 1 of 3

     Kiev/Stockholm - A Tupilak delegation has recently returned from a September 2-4, 2011meeting with Ukrainian, Belarus and Swedish LGBT activists and cultural workers in Kiev -- a trip made possible thanks to support from the Swedish Institute.

      This included performances, art & photo exhibits, films, lively discussions and seminars as well as planning for future rainbow co-operation between the three countries.

    Information and photos about the visit to Kiev will be presented at Tupilak's last-Sunday-of the-month cultural afternoon at the Stockolm cultural center, Hallongrottan on October 30 (see below.)

     Next stops in this Swedish-Belarus-Ukrainian rainbow solidarity project will be in Minsk October 21-23, 2011 and the Crimea June 1-3, 2012.
___________________________________________________________________________

ERATO August 2010

2010-12-21T15:31:00.005+01:00

ERATO— about rainbow cultural workers & friends

ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat

www.ilgcn.tupilak. org Stockholm August, 2010

__________________________________________________________________

2011 World Conference sites: Istanbul April 26-30/Ankara May 5-6, and Crimea, Ukraine August 26 to September 3rd:

Warsaw Hosts ILGCN World Conference

Warsaw – The 2010 ILGCN world conference/festival took place July 16-18 with seminars, performances, film screenings and art/photo exhibitions at the gay club Fantom and culture club Rasko – as well as participating in other alternative Europride events, the Rosa Rose European LGBT conference and with an ILGCN float in the Europride parade.

“We were proud to have the ILGCN back again in the Polish capital exactly 10 years after the world conference event here,” says ILGCN co-ordinator, Slawek Starosta.

“It’s very important for us to be at such events to help Nordic Award to Polish Social Democratic

break the isolation of our colleagues back tin Belarus and Party President Wojciech Filemonowicz (right) to make new contacts with (Continued on page 2) (photo by Slava Bornik)

__________________________________________________________________________

ILGCN Seminars, Art in Swedish cities

Stockholm – The ILGCN Information Secretariat and allies have been hosting seminars on rainbow culture and international solidarity at a number of Swedish events during the year -- including the LGBT Festival in the west coast city of Gothenburg, the Rainbow Festival in the city of Eskilstuna west of Stockholm, at Stockholm Pride at the end of August and a “Congratulations Cabaret Salute to Warsaw’s Europride” event in early August also in the Swedish capital.

The seminars were complemented with Nordic rainbow music, films and art and photography from the ILGCN and the Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers) Sweden’s Peter Fröberg travelling exhibit – including new contributors from Belarus and Cuba. at Stockholm’s Warsaw Salute (Continued on page 3)

______________________________________________________________________________

2nd Rainbow Cultural Festival in St. Petersburg Lives on

Russian International Queer Culture Festival

St. Petersburg -- September 16-25 of this year, the International Festival of Queer Culture is coming to St. Petersburg, Russia for the second time. This is a non-commercial project whose goal is to promote tolerance and diversity and to attract society’s attention to the problems of homophobia and transphobia in Russia through the language of art. (Continued on page 2)

Warsaw Conference…

Budapest Trio – among performers in Warsaw

(Continued from page 1) with other LGBT activists

” says Slava Bortnik, ILGCN co-ordinator of Belarus.

“Together with the Belarus delegates here in Warsaw, we have planned a near-future ILGCN event in Minsk to help break isolation of the LGBT community in this the last dictatorship in Eastern Europe,” says Lukasz Palucki, secretary general of the ILGCN Eastern Europe Secretariat-Warsaw.

“We were very happy to play our music both for the ILGCN event and for the Rosa Rose meeting,” says Thomas Lovas , ILGCN Hungarian cultural ambassador along with the other members of the classic Trio music group.

“It was good to join in ILGCN events after our Berlin and Stockholm conferences,” adds Jessica Jayne Maertin, ILGCN cultural ambassador from the Czech Republic, who described the cultural scene at her adopted home country and got both ILGCN participants and others involved in folk dancing.

“Because of the Icelandic volcanic cloud disrupting air traffic in May, we decided to postpone this year’s planned conference stage in Istanbul/Ankara to May next year and for personnel reasons, the same with the planned conference stage in Crimea, Ukraine until May 1-4, 2011,” explains Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat-Stockholm. The Warsaw gathering also approved new ILGCN cultural ambassadors from Belarus, Canada, Turkey, Israel and Nigeria.

Bifrost Awards to Pole, Swede for LGBT Support

At the conference, Bill Schiller of the ILGCN and chairman of Tupilak (the Nordic rainbow cultural workers) handed out Tupilak’s 2010 “Bifrost” award honoring heterosexual support of the LGBT rights struggle to Wojciech Filemonowicz, chairman of SDPL (Socjaldemokracja Polska - Social Democratic Party of Poland.) for the strong support of the LGBT community in Poland. Sharing this year’s award is Sweden’s Thomas Hammarberg, human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, who is to receive his award diploma in person at a later date.

________________________________________________________________________________

Russian International Culture Festival…

(Continued from page 1) Queer Culture Festival is one of the largest openly queer events in Russia.

Last year, it attracted over 3000 people and went on without any obstacles from the Russian authorities, right extremist groups, or any other interruptions. This year, the organizers hope to attract even more attention, peacefully and lawfully, to the issues that affect LGBT people.

“We think the Festival is positive and valuable experience for all of St. Petersburg and Russia. Our goal is to make it happen. If it’s not allowed to proceed, it would be a loss for the city. Our message is that of tolerance and respect for human rights and each other - that should not be too scary,” says Polina Savchenko, the Festival coordinator. “When a question if I wanted to participate in the Festival came up, there was no hesitation. I definitely said yes directly,” says Jay-Jay Johanson, popular Swedish musician and guest star of the Festival. “I wish the Festival good luck and I hope their voice will be heard all over the world.”

The organizer of the Festival is the St. Petersburg LGBT organization Coming Out http://piter.lgbtnet.ru ) with the support by the Swedish human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders (http://www.civilrightsdefenders.org). The festival’s program on the website: http://queerfest.ru/?lang=en

Fights and riots in western Ukranian City

1st Anthology of LGBT Literature in Lviv

A report on the turmoil over LGBT literature in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv has reached the ILGCN Information Secretariat which we transmit to our supporters:

Lviv – In the Les Kurbas Theater in Lviv, during a literature marathon and poetry readings from the anthology of gay/lesbian literature "120 Pages of Sodom," --the first anthology of LGBT poetry and prose in Ukraine-- a large confrontation, accompanied by an equally large skirmish, took place: opponents of LGBT themes in literature "misunderstood the humor" of the publishers, and disrupted the event, which, incidentally, was a part of the larger Ukrainian Publishers Forum. The police cleared up the incident, but not without it resulting in the injury of a photo journalist from the internet publication ZIK.

120 Pages of Sodom was printed by publishing house "Kritika" (Criticism). Works by 30 different authors hailing from 15 countries from around the world were included in the anthology. Writerings from Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Germany, Austria, Scotland, Spain, Greece, Switzerland and USA were represented. All materials for the project have been translated for the first time into Ukrainian.

Creating a Ukrainian edition of the anthology was the brainchild of three young poets: Irina Shuvalova, Albina Pozdnyakova and Olesya Barloga. The organizers of the literature marathon and the compilers of the anthology were certain that the realization of this project would help increase tolerance of Ukrainians toward the LGBT population and also help promote new creative relationships between Ukrainian and foreign writers.
_______________________________________________________________________

ILGCN Seminars, Art in Swedish cities….

(Continued from page 1) Still planned for this year: participation in Umeå Pride in this northern Swedish city September 3-5, Uppsala Pride November 4-7 in this university city just north of Stockholm and the three-day salute to colleagues in Belarus and those in exile in Sweden and elsewhere in the “Culture as Opposition” focusing on the human rights struggle in this the last dictatorship in Eastern Europe in Stockholm on October 31, November 7 and November 14.

Joining in the ILGCN and Tupilak events were also the Nordic Rainbow Council, Nordic Rainbow Humanists, the Nordic Rainbow Council and the Nordic-Belarus-Russian-Estonian-Latvian-Lithuanian-Polish Network aiming at increasing rainbow cultural and all other ties between LGBT organizations in the region – an extension of the ILGCN-prize winning “Swedish-Pol-Balt Network” which so far does not include Russia or Belarus or other organizations and individuals in the Nordic neighbors of Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland.
_________________________________________________________________

Tupilak & ILGCN Travelling Art & Photo Exhibit Next stops: Warsaw, Stockholm, Uppsala

Willi Reichhold Timo Saarelma, Gudrun Stockinge, Andrius Privetas,

Sweden Finland Austria Lithuania

More Rainbow Films at Berlinale 2010

(a continuation of the report in the last Erato)

AMPHETAMINE – a not unusual love story between two Chinese men from Hong Kong, one of whom is rich and regards himself as hetero – and the other gay, but having just parted from his girl-friend desperately seeks love. The director, Scud, dedicated the film about sex, drugs, and love to all those who “live to love, but only end up losing the love of their lives.”

MINE VAGANTI (Loose Cannons) is not a rabble rousing feature film but depicts, with gentle humour, the history of an Italian family suddenly confronted with homosexuality in their midst. The family are owners of a pasta factory. Tomaso, who lives with his friend in Rome, returns to the family fold to tell them the “facts of his life” – only to beaten at the post by his older brother, Antonio – who was supposed to take over the running of the factory! The film carries the name of Loose Cannon because this is the nickname of the grandmother – who is said to talk too much.

VESELCHARKI – is a reportedly the first film „out of“ Russia which deals with the lives of men who earn their livings as drag-queens in nightclubs. The film shows the five men with different characters and backgrounds at work and in their free time, as well as the difficulties which confront them in daily life. Although not Oscar-ripe it is interesting when too long.

In Initiation (aka Blutfreundschaft = Blood Brothers) attempts to bring together two problems – young men attracted to fascist ideas and neo-nazism – and, homosexuality. Axel, the young man, as part of his initiation ceremonies into a neo-Nazi group is required to take part in an attack on a soup-kitchen and he stabs the organiser to death. In escaping from the horror of his deed he is befriended, and hidden, by Gustav an 80-year old homosexual. Gustav thinks of his young lover under the Hitler regime when he sees Axel. No uninteresting but no real plot. The, in his young years, very attractive bisexual actor, Helmut Berger, plays Gustav.

HAZMAN HAVAROD (Gay Days)

Is a not very exciting, but informative history of the Pride Day events in the unusual circumstances – Israel.

-- Colin de La Motte-Sherman, ILGCN_Berlin

________________________________________________________________________________

ILGCN ANNUAL AWARDS: (Proposals welcomed at all secretariats)

Rainbow Iceberg (international work) Sappho in Paradise (libraries, publishing)
´´
Orfeo Iris (research in Nazi & neo Nazi persecution) Grizzly Bear (work in ferocious situations)

Orfeo Musica (international co-operation) Arco Nordica (Nordic co-operation)

Orfeo Imago ( art & photos) Rainbow Warrior

Swedish sculptor Carl Milles’’ ‘Orfeo’ Clio’s Silver Cup (LGBT history)
________________________________________________________________________________

ILGCN Secretariats Information: Stockholm www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

Literature: London istewart@alumni.sfu. ca History: Minneapolis trett007@umn.edu

Women: Tallinn krissu.@qiss.eu Eastern Europe: Warsaw santi@santi.net.pl

Film & Film Festivals: Riga andrejs.visockis@gmail.com

North America: Toronto michaelgfroerer@yahoo. ca.

ILGCN 2001, Nordic Rainbow Humanists

2010-12-05T21:51:00.004+01:00

ILGCN World Rainbow Culture Conference stages 2011:
Stage 1: Turkey -- part of the 4th international festival Ankara/Istanbul May 1-15
Stage 2: Crimea, Ukraine -- August 29 - September 4
_______________________________________________

Nordic Rainbow Humanists

C/O Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers) http://www.tupilak.org/ , ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm http://www.ilgcn.tupilak.org/ and the Nordic Rainbow Council.
_______________________________________________________________

CALLING NORDIC RAINBOW HUMANISTS December 16, 2010 Stockholm

Greetings! The latest information….

1. Nordic Rainbow Humanist Award winner 2010!!??? Suggestions, recommendations as quickly as
possible!

(Earlier awards have gone to humanists in Britain, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania (which helped launch the Romanian Humanist organization!), Nigeria. Our award to the Nigerian Humanists was finally handed out in person in London this year at a GALHA ceremony. See Erato on ILGCN web site)

2. Our Nordic Rainbow Humanist folder is to be reprinted. Suggestions, additions, new photos? As
quickly as possible to Stockholm!

3. 2011: As usual, we will include seminars on “Humanists on the Rainbow Barricades” at the coming
ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) world cultural conference stages:

May 2-14: Ankara/Istanbul (Rolf Solheim from Norway will once again join us with his multi-media presentation!)

August 28-September 3: Crimea, Ukraine (More detailed information, dates coming)

We are also offering our usual rainbow humanist seminars at Polish pride events: Krakow (May), Warsaw (July) Wroclaw (New!!! - October) and Poznan (November).

Also: 3rd Baltic Pride in Tallinn, Estonia (June). Minsk, Belarus (August).

Sweden: We hope to have rainbow humanist seminars (or include humanism in our seminars on rainbow culture, international solidarity, etc.) at our traditional co-operation with Gothenburg LGBT Festival (May), Eskilstuna Pride (May), Uppsala Pride (September).

Stockholm Pride: We have been informed that a very good group of Swedish humanists are planning a major event at the coming Stockholm Pride!!

(Of course we offer any assistance but are very happy that this takes pressure off us. We have arranged humanist seminars at Pride House and elsewhere in Stockholm over the last few years with very fine response from the audiences and good discussions – often with visiting Nordic Rainbow Humanists from Norway, Iceland, Lithuania, etc.)

(Last year, our humanist seminar at Stockholm Pride House was one of our five Tupilak, ILGCN, NRH, seminars on rainbow culture, international solidarity, history, etc. For 2011, we hope to expand to other subjects such as “Rainbow Flags in Palestine…?” and “Rainbow Flags among the Roma-Sinti…?”)

4. GALHA – we will once again invite our London-based colleagues to join us on the Eastern European barricades as they promised. (A near-future meeting with GALHA…?)

Any Nordic Rainbow Humanist colleagues eager to join us in Sweden, Turkey, Poland, Estonia, Crimea, Belarus, etc. are very welcome. Please get in touch.

Bill Schiller, Nordic Rainbow Humanist international secretary, chairman of Tupilak and secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm

bill.schiller@sr.se
_________________________________________________

ILGCN INFORMATION SECRETARIAT CALLING - URGENT

2010-05-03T20:24:00.000+02:00

ILGCN INFORMATION SECRETARIAT CALLING - URGENT

Update on the ILGCN world cultural conference stages for 2010:

The first planned stage for ISTANBUL/ANKARA, Turkey in May has been postponed until May, 2011!

The programs for now being finalized for stages 2 & 3.

Get back to us if you are planning to join us and if you wish us to add seminars, performances, film screenings and art exhibitions:

WARSAW, Poland (sidelines of EuroPride) July 16-18

Contact: Slawek Starosta starosta@gay.pl

Lukasz Palucki l.palucki@sdpl.pl

ILGCN Information Secretariat

CRIMEA, Ukraine September 1-5

Contact: Irina Sizova irinasizova@yandex.ru

ILGCN Information Secretariat

Update

2010-03-22T13:11:00.000+01:00

The ILGCN world cultural conference stages for 2010 are:
ISTANBUL/ANKARA, Turkey: May 6-8, May 12-15
Contact: Information Secretariat
"Nevin" nevin@kaosgl.org
WARSAW, Poland (sidelines of EuroPride) July 16-18
Contact: Information Secretariat:
S*awek Starosta starosta@gay.pl
*ukasz Pa*ucki l.palucki@sdpl.pl

Crimian, Ukraine September 1-5
Contact: Information Secretariat:
Irina Sizova irinasizova@yandex.ru

P.S. Contributions for the next *Erato* very welcome!

Stockholm Follow-up Discussion and Cultural evening

2010-02-12T12:00:00.005+01:00

NORDIC-POLISH-BALTIC-RUSSIAN-BELARUS NETWORK:

Stockholm Follow-up Discussion and Cultural evening

February, 15, 2010 19.00 - 21.00

NOTE: changed venue: at HALLONGROTTAN cultural center Bergsundsgatan 25 (T-ban Hornstull -- a few minutes walk towards the water, around the corner of Moldau restaurant ( Bergsunds Strand 33 ) and to the right)

Special guests:

Siarhei Padsossny -- Belarus journalist and ILGCN cultural ambassador, with the latest on the LGBT scene in Belarus.

Lukasz Palucki -- ILGCN cultural ambassador for Poland and secretary general of the Warsaw-based ILGCN Secretariat for Eastern Europe, on the *royal flowers* ceremony in Krakow, ILGCN conference on the side lines of EuroPride 2010-Warsaw and on Europride itself.

Performances:

Prijo Yksoska - with her own songs and music from Finland

Jenny Gabrielsson - singer and Swedish ILGCN cultural ambassador

Magne Eliassen -- Norwegian singer/performer

Peter Fröberg -- Swedish singer/musician

Tomas Åberg -- poetry

Art work:

Polish artist, Michal Palczewski

The latest additions to the ILGCN/Tupilak Travelling Exhibition

More information: Bill Schiller, chairman of Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers) and secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm

www.Tupilak.org www.ilgcn.tupilak.org bill@tupilak.org

NETWORK MEETING/CULTURAL EVENT

2009-12-13T13:05:00.002+01:00

LGBT activists, cultural workers, national and branch organizations, Pride and festival organizers, media, etc. in the Nordic/Baltic region:   Welcome to the first meeting of the N0RDIC-P0LISH-BALTIC (Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania)-RUSSIAN (St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad)-BELARUS NETWORK -- to increase contact, mutual exchange and participation in each other*s events during the year.

No membership fee! No bureaucracy!    Most contact via internet!

NETWORK MEETING/CULTURAL EVENT
- Stockholm     Monday, January 18,
2010      18.00 - 22.00

.....at PositHIVa Gruppen Tjurbergsgatan 29 (T-ban Skanskull)

----------------------------------------------------

PRESENTATIONS:
"Lithuania: Homophobic Laws/ 2nd Baltic Pride-Vilnius" - ILGCN-Lithuania
"LGBT Barricades in Belarus" - ILGCN-Belarus
"Nordic LGBT in Eastern Europe" - Nordic Rainbow Council
"Work in Petersburg/ Belarus, etc." - Civil Rights Defenders - Sweden
"HIV Work over Borders" - PositHIVagruppen -Stockholm
"Culture on the Baltic Rainbow Barricades" -- Tupilak
"Warsaw EuroPride/ Flowers for a 15th Century Polish King* -- ILGCN Eastern Europe Secretariat - Warsaw

Latvian, Lithuanian delegates
at ILGCN meeting in Gothenburg

DISCUSSIONS of NETWORK Participation in 2010 Events:
1 March: rainbow cultural event - Vilnius (with EU Parliament LGBT group)
2. May: Nordic/Baltic cultural happening -- Tartu/Tallinn
3. May: 2nd Baltic Pride - Vilnius
4. July: Baltic Solidarity Square - Visby
5. July: Europride - Warsaw
6. September: Tribade Festival - Helsinki
7. September: 2nd Queer Cultural Week -- St. Petersburgat
8. September: International Solidarity Square - Gothenburg
9. December: Nordic-Polish-Baltic-Russian-Belarus Network anniversary - Stockholm

PERFORMANCES:
     Songs, music from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland
     Rainbow Poems from Vilnius - ILGCN Lithuania
     Humanist's Rainbow Bible - Nordic Rainbow Humanists
ART EXHIBITS:
"Vlad's World" - Belarus
"Tupilak/ILGCN Travelling Art Exhibit"
FILM: "Pink Curtain" (U.K)

      Bill Schiller for Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers), Nordic Rainbow Council, ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm, Nordic Rainbow
Humanists
       www.tupilak.org   www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

KRISTALLNACHT

2009-10-30T11:29:00.002+01:00

Stockholm participation in the international tribute on:

KRISTALLNACHT
– the launching of the Nazi persecution and execution of Jews, Roma, Homosexuals, Dissidents, Intellectuals, War Prisoners, etc.

Burning synagogue, 1938

18.00 – 19.00 Monday, November 9, 2009
at PositHIVa Gruppen Tjurbergsgatan 29 (T-ban Skanskull)

“PositHIVa co-operation with St. Petersburg, etc.”
“Civil Rights Defenders: at the LGBT conference in Belarus (Eastern Europe’s last dictatorship).”
“On the Rainbow Barricades in Eastern Europe.”
Exhibition: “Nazi & neo Nazi Persecution of LGBT.”

Minsk 2009

……………………………………………………………

Stockholm deltar i den internationella markeringen av:
KRISTALLNATTEN
– början av Nazi förföljelse av Judar, Roma, LGBT, Dissidenter, Krigsfångar, etc.

18.00 – 19:00 Måndagen, 9 november, 2009
Hos PositHIVagruppen Tjurbergsgatan 29 (T-ban Skanstull)

”PositHIVa verksamhet, samarbete med St. Petersburg.”
”Civil Rights Defenders: HBT Konferens i Belarus”
”På Regnbågs Barrikaderna i Öst Europa”
Utställning: “Nazi & neo Persecution of LGBT’s.”

Historic Tupilak music at the ‘Wall of Death’ in Auschwitz

……………………………………………………………
Organized by: Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers), Nordic Rainbow Council, Nordic Rainbow Humanists, ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat – Stockholm ( in co-operation with UNITED – Amsterdam.)

NORDIC RAINBOW HUMANISTS

2009-10-18T15:25:00.001+02:00

October, 2009

Stockholm * The Nordic Rainbow Humanists have once again joined forces with their traditional allies (Tupilak * Nordic rainbow cultural workers, Nordic Rainbow Council and the International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network * Information Secretariat, Stockholm) in a number of LGBT events over the last year in Sweden, elsewhere in the Nordic region and Eastern Europe.

This includes presentations, spreading NRC leaflets, displaying photography and art work and answering questions from the audiences -- some very astounded to learn that there are others criticizing religious
oppression and not just the communists, especially in the East where the different religions are regarded as heroic survivors of Soviet times.

At this year*s Stockholm Pride, the NRH had special presentations both at the Pride House and at a city theater cultural day, hosted by NRH member Rolf Solheim from Norway and attended by Nordic Rainbow
Humanist award winner, Carl-Johan Kleberg, formerly head of the Swedish Humanists.

We were also present with rainbow participation at the international solidarity events in Visby on the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland and at the giant International Book Fair in Gothenburg.

Other Nordic events and discussions took place on Finland*s Åland Islands (between Sweden and Finland,) the 1st Baltic Pride in Riga (we include Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in the Nordic *family) and the
Tribade Festival in Helsinki.

Events in Eastern Europe included the ILGCN conference stages in Bucharest (where we also presented the 2009 Nordic Rainbow Humanist award to the newly-formed Romanian Humanists for their support of the
Romanian LGBT movement), Budapest and St. Petersburg.

(We really missed participation * especially in our Eastern European events * with British and other GALHA members and hope we can arrange joint forces in the year to come!)

Nigerian Award Still Waiting

We have also continued our discussions with the Swedish and Norwegian humanist organizations about bringing a member of the Nigerian Humanist Association (honored with the NRH award) to Scandinavia to
receive the award (alas only a diploma * no cash) in person and to hold a seminar about their support for the hard-pressed LGBT movement in that African country. (Perhaps we could make this a
Swedish-Norwegian-British tour to help share the large travel costs?)

Our next event will be on November 9th *Kristall Nachten* as part of the international memorials marking this date when the Nazi regime launched its violent, window-smashing attack on Jews in Berlin
and signalling the beginning of the extermination of Jews, Roma, homosexuals, dissidents and others in the concentration camps. The event will include discussions of our joint solidarity events during the
year, the recent and historic LGBT conference in Belarus and our special art exhibit, *Nazi & neo Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals.*

Bill Schiller, international secretary

Note: The NRC regards itself as an informal network and as a *northern outreach* of GALHA, and is open to LGBT humanists in the Nordic region. There is no membership fee and members are
encouraged to be paying members both to GALHA and their national humanist association.

ILGCN CONFERENCE IN ST. PETERSBURG -- PART OF HISTORIC INTERNATIONAL QUEER FESTIVAL

2009-10-18T15:24:00.001+02:00

PRESS RELEASE October 3, 2009

3rd stage of this year's world cultural conferences after Budapest and Bucharest:

St. Petersburg/Stockholm -- The third and final stage of this year's ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) world rainbow cultural conference took place in St. Petersburg on September 23rd with discussions, art work, films and musical performances -- part of the biggest queer cultural festival ever in Russia and free from any harassment or bans by the authorities.

"This was the first International Festival of Queer Culture in St. Petersburg and the biggest event of its kind in Russia," says ILGCN co-ordinator Polina Savchenko. "For 10 days the city saw theatrical performances, concerts, photo exhibitions, poetry slams, seminars, workshops and discussions at different venues of the city (both LGBT and non-LGBT) -- and information about the Festival was widespread both in the LGBT community and in the general society."

"I was very happy to get this opportunity to tell the audience about Helsinki´s 10th Tribade Day & Night Festival and to sing some of my songs," says Finnish ILGCN co-ordinator Anne Jaaskelainen, also
co-ordinator of the annual Tribade festival.

ILGCN Grizzly Bear Honors St. Petersburg Organizers

"We were also happy to show some Nordic films and samples of the travelling ILGCN & Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers) art and photos at the conference," says Bill Schiller of the ILGCN Information
Secretariat in Stockholm. "And we were proud to hand over the ILGCN 2009 'Grizzly Bear' honoring those struggling in especially ferocious homophobic environments to the organizers of the historic Queer Cultural
Festival in St. Petersburg."

Nordic participants were especially grateful for support and accomodation from veteran ILGCN Russian co-ordinator Alexander Kukarsky, also participating in the ILGCN conference and founder of Russia's
oldest gay organization, Krilja (Wings).

"The organizers of this year's Queer Cultural Festival believe our goal has been successfully achieved -- unification of different queer people around values of openness, tolerance and mutual respect," adds
Polina. "The audiences included gays, lesbians, transgender and heterosexual people, all enjoying the events in a friendly and open atmosphere and celebrating diversity. The feedback from both LGBT and
non-LGBT audiences is the same: 'We appreciate the atmosphere which is inclusive of all, it is a powerful message, when one social groups recognizes and stands up for the rights of another."

"As a result of the festival, different human rights groups and organizations have made plans for future collaboration and the festival organizers of St. Petersburg have been empowered to continue full
participation in the social and cultural life of their city. ," Polina concludes.

The initiator of the festival was the St. Petersburg LGBT organization, "Coming Out," but many organizations -- both LGBT and non-LGBT-- joined forces to co-organize the event. Especially
appreciated support also came from the consulates of Netherlands and of Sweden, represented in person at the festival's inauguration.

Earlier and Future ILGCN Conference Sites

Earlier 2009 ILGCN conference stages took place in the Romanian capital of Bucharest in May and in the Hungarian capital of Budapest in July (see ILGCN press releases).

Discussions are under way about the sites of the stages of the 2010 ILGCN world conference -- with proposals from Belgrad - Serbia, Gothenburg - Sweden and Warsaw - Poland (July 16-18 dur More information: ILGCN Information secretariat info@tupilak.org
www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

ST. PETERSBURG TO HOST RUSSIA's BIGGEST QUEER CULTURAL EVENT

2009-08-28T20:19:00.005+02:00

ILGCN World Rainbow Cultural Conference Stage Included

ST. PETERSBURG TO HOST RUSSIA's
BIGGEST QUEER CULTURAL EVENT

St. Petersburg -- The International Festival of Queer Culture 2009 -- September 17-27, 2009 -- will take place in this Russian city as the largest-scale event of this type in this country so far. Several public organisations and initiative groups of St. Petersburg, both LBGT and non-LBGT, have joined forces to create this 10-day multi-event festival which is supported by partners varying from the Swedish and Dutch consulates to the St. Petersburg guidebooks.

The program includes theatrical performances, photo and art exhibitions, poetry slams, seminars, workshops, discussions, and music. Rockfest, the closing festival event, presents several emerging as well as well-established bands from St. Petersburg and is head-lined by the American group, Betty.

The events also include the 3rd stage of this year´s ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) World Rainbow Cultural Conference (earlier stages in Bucharest and Budapest) on September 21 -- with a special focus on Nordic rainbow cultural co-operation with collegues in Eastern Europe. It will also include the ILGCN's and Tupilak's (Nordic rain bow cultural workers) travelling art and photo exhibition with works from 25 nations.

"Queer" is the chosen concept for the festival aiming to celebrate university and diversity and as a rebellion against stigmas and labels. The term "queer" aims to go beyond the LGBT-sphere and to include everyone, expanding the rigid frameworks surrounding social stereotypes and stereotypes of identity, sex and gender. The message the festival hopes to bring forward is that all are different but all are united by one language - the language of art, and by common values - values of love, tolerance and mutual respect. The ambition of the festival is also to unite different people around constructive creativity and positive emotions.

More information and questions: http://www.queerfest.ru/en/index.shtml queer.fest2009@gmail.com

Information concerning the ILGCN conference and activities: www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

ISRAELI GAY ACTIVIST NAMED ILGCN "RAINBOW WARRIOR" 2009

2009-08-14T23:59:00.002+02:00

PRESS RELEASE AUGUST 13, 2009

Stockholm -- Gay Israeli activist and pacifist, Ezra Nawi, has been awarded thee 2009 "Rainbow Warrior" by the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) for his outstanding and courageous efforts to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes and the ousting of Palestian farmers from their land in occupied territory.

"The 57-year-old plumber by trade is an excellent example of the resistance to injustice and homophobia in a turbulent Middle East," says Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat in Stockholm. "Ezra Nawi illustrates how bright the rainbow colors shine when stretched over geographic, ethnic, religious, gender and age barriers. He should be honored both by Israelis and Palestinians alike -- instead of facing court room judges and threats of prison sentences."

Although this international award diploma does not include any monetary sum, it is awarded with golden appreciation for important work well done -- promoting the identity, culture and visibility of the LGBT community and its roll in the global human rights battle for everyone. The diploma is to be presented in person as soon as possible in the Swedish capital or other appropriate place when a time and site can be chosen.

Earlier "Rainbow Warrior" awards have gone to courageous Polish gay and heterosexual activists defying homophobic media, politicians, religious leaders and neo nazi violence.

More information: www.ilgcn.tupilak.org

3rd stage of the 2009 ILGCN (International World Rainbow Culture Conference) * St. Petersburg.

2009-08-01T12:00:00.001+02:00

3rd stage of the 2009 ILGCN (International World Rainbow Culture Conference) * St. Petersburg. September 21, 2009

(**part of the INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF QUEER CULTURE SEPTEMBER 19-27, 2009 -- St. Petersburg, Russia http://queerfest.ru/en )

Multi-cultural presentation:

*NORDIC RAINBOW CULTURAL CO-OPERATION WITH EASTERN EUROPE * using art, music, song, film, dance, poetry, drama and journalism as powerful international weapons against homophobia, intolerance and silence*

-- Anne Jaaskelainen * singer/songwriter and chair woman of the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival * Helsinki, Finland

-- Bill Schiller * Swedish Radio journalist, chairman of Tupilak
(Nordic rainbow culture workers) and secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm

Photo Exhibit: "Nordic Delegation to Bucharest Pride" -- by Jussi Jaaskelainen, Finland

Also: samples from the Tupilak & ILGCN Travelling Art & Photo Exhibition * works from Iceland to Lithuania, Russia to Denmark, Portugal to Norway.

***** (1st stage of the ILGCN 2009 conference: Bucharest - May 21 2nd stage Budapest -- September 3-4).

KULTUR PROGRAM -- CULTURE PROGRAM

2009-06-15T12:00:00.008+02:00

"Tupilak performance at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland."

BUCHAREST -- Succesful 1st stage of this year's ILGCN world rainbow cultural conference in the Romanian capital, May 22 (part of annual Gayfest).

BUDAPEST -- The 2nd stage of the ILGCN world conference has been postponed since the dates for Budapest Pride have been moved back to August 30 - September 6.

ST. PETERSBURG -- September 21 for the 3rd stage of the ILGCN conference 2009.(part of Russian Rainbow Cultural Festival).

.......................................................................................................

SWEDEN:

Visby -- Tupilak /ILGCN work will be presented at the Baltic Square solidarity event on this Swedish island between June 29 - August 4 during a major political/cultural week.

Stockholm --

Monday July 27 "Nordic Rainbow Culture over Nordic Borders." 16.00 Pride House

Tuesday, July 28
Nordic Rainbow Co- with Eastern Europe 15.00 Teater Tribunalen
Nordisk Rainbows in Chains: Belarus 15.30 Teater Tribunalen
Rainbow Cultural Co-oepration over Nordic Borders 16.00 Teater Tribunalen
Humanists on the Rainbow Barricades 16.30 Teater Tribunalen
Nazi & neo Nazi Persecution of the LGBT" 17.30 Teater Tribunalen

Tupilak/ILGCN Travelling Art & Photo Exhibition, Photo Exhibit: "27 Prides in the EU"

Performances in the afternoon at Teater Tribunalen.

Wednesday, July 29 "The Dark Side of the Nordic Rainbow: Faroes" 12.00 Pride House
Thursday, July 30
Humanists on the Rainbow Barricades 13.00 Pride House
Nordic Co-operation with Eastern Europe. 15:00 Pride House
Nazi & neo Nazi Persecution of LGBT 17.00 Pride House

Gothenburg -- Work of Tupilak/ILGCN will be presented at the International Square solidarity event at the giant book fair

(the biggest annual cultural event of the Nordic region) September 24-27.

.......................................................................................................

VILNIUS -- A European Parliament/ ILGCN rainbow cultural exhibition and seminars are planned for October in the Lithuanian capital -- this year the European Cultural Capital which so far has ignored rainbow contributions.

NORDIC HUMANIST AWARD TO ROMANIANS

2009-06-02T21:28:00.001+02:00

PRESS RELEASE MAY, 2009

BUCHAREST/STOCKHOLM -- The 2009 Nordic Rainbow Humanist award has been
presented to the memers of the newly-started Rumanian Humanist
Association.

The award diploma was handed out during the ILGCN (International
Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) 1st stage of this year's world rainbow
cultural conference in the Romanian capital oon May 21st as part of
this year's annual Bucharest GayFest.

The Romanians are being honored for -- despite the association's
young age and the fierce homophobia from politicians, religious
leaders, the media and neo nazi hooligans in that Eastern European
nation -- giving strong support to the LGBT community and for
standing up in solidarity in public at Pride parades and LGBT cultural
events -- proving that real progress for human rights can best be
achieved by gays and straights jointly manning the rainbow barricades.

Earlier awards from the Stockholm-based Nordic Rainbow Humanists
have gone to pioneering human rights activists in Britain, Norway,
Sweden, the Netherlands and Nigeria (see diploma for details).

For more information: http://www.tupilak.org

TUPILAK CULTURAL EVENING

2009-04-01T23:55:00.003+02:00

Wednesday April 22, 2009 19.00 www.tupilak.org

Musik Valvet Kåkbrinken 5 Gamla Stan, Stockholm
(a few steps away from the exit of the "Old Town" tube station)

Preliminary program:

Jenny Gabrielsson -- song and music
Peter Fröberg -- music and song
"LGBT films at major film festivals" -- Marit Kapla, director of the Gothenburg International Film Festival
"Tupilak and ILGCN (International rainbow cultural network) Events 2009"
- from Riga to Krakow, Visby to Bucharest, Gothenburg to St. Petersburg
-- Bill Schiller, Tupilak chairman and secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm
"News from Rainbow Colleagues in Belarus* -- Yury Kazhura, Tupilak international secretary.
Bastian Damascus "Flowers of the Cock" -- dance-performance
Tupilak award ceremony

Wine at budget prices!

(No entrance fee, but donations appreciated to help cover the rent!)

NOTE: Short Tupilak steering committee meeting at 18.00. (Open to all members as well.)

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

_____________________________________________________________

Tupilak has members in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland. Iceland, Åland, Faroes, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania.

2009-03-04T17:39:00.003+01:00

To Tupilak colleagues/supporters on both sides of the Baltic Sea:

YEARLY MEETING. Stockholm,
March 18, 2009 19.00

at HALLONGROTTAN Bergsundsgatan 25 (T-Hornstull)
Tel: 08 658 13 20

& a special INTERNATIONAL SALUTE to young LGBT activists in BELARUS
- the last Eastern Europe dictatorship

Agenda:

New steering committee (new blood wanted * especially outside Stockholm. Most meetings and decisions are by e-mail to save travel $$$$ and energy).
Financial report. (Miserable situation since no more funding from the Swedish state. Membership income and fund-raising more important than ever!)
Sending delegates to 1st Baltic Pride * Riga (May 15-17) and Gothenburg Rainbow Cultural Festival (May 15-17).
Working with the Swedish Pol-Balt Network (for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Next meeting in Stockholm March 23)
Baltic Rainbow Cultural Festival * Visby (June 28- July 4, 2009 * Almedalen Week).
Tupilak/ILGCN Art Exhibit during Stockholm Pride 2009*?
Delegate to Nordic Rainbow Islanders* Human Rights& Culture Conference (Iceland, Faroes, Greenland, Åland, Gotland, Öland, Stockholm Archipelago).
Delegate to 10th Tribade Day & Night Festival * Helsinki (September) and ILGCN World Culture Conference in St. Petersburg (September 21).
Work with SödraTeater on *Swedish-Eastern Europe Rainbow Cultural Festival * Stockholm, 2009.
Work with Nordic Rainbow Humanists, Swedish Humanists. (Visiting Nigerian pro-LGBT humanists!)
Rainbow music and art festivals at Musik Valvet - Stockholm

Bill Schiller, bill@tupilak.org
Tupilak international secretary andsecretary general of ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network Information Secretariat * Stockholm)

_______________________________________________________________

Tupilak members in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Åland, Faroes, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Norwegian Opera Singer Björn Haugan Dies

2009-01-28T18:03:00.004+01:00

Stockholm – Long-time Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers)

member and strong supporter of ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural

Network) activities, Norwegian opera singer and music teacher, Björn Haugan, has died at a Stockholm hospital after a long illness.

Aside from his professional work as a singer and teacher, Haugan performed voluntarily at a number of rainbow cultural events arranged by Tupilak and by the ILGCN, including IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) events in the Swedish capital – singing cheerfully and powerfully even from his wheelchair in the last years.

Björn Haugan was especially proud of his participation in 2002 in an ILGCN-arranged “Nazi & neo Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals” event in Linz, Austria, co-arranged at a city theater with the Austrian LGBT organization, HOSI-Linz, and including a rainbow ceremony at the near-by Nazi concentration camp, Mauthausen, where Haugan sang Wagner’s “Liebestod” at the gathering in front of the camp’s pink triangle monument marked “Beaten to Death, Silenced to Death” -- honoring the LGBT prisoners who were interned, tortured and murdered in the camp.

Björn Haugan carried out the visit to Austria despite severe pains from his diabetes.

. A memorial concert will take place on Saturday, February 7 at 17.00 at Sofia Church in Stockholm.

Bill Schiller – Tupilak international secretary

HOSI-Linzp photo from of a rainbow ceremony in Mauthausen -- honoring the LGBT prisoners

TUPILAK CALLING * January 2009

2009-01-09T17:14:00.001+01:00

TUPILAK CALLING * January 2009

-- from the international desk

Stockholm -- Tupilak/ILGCN cultural evening: a successful event at the Musik Valvet in the Old Town with live music, presentations and the exhibition of some of Tupilak & ILGCN Travelling Art and Photography on November 30, 2008.

Special participation (thanks to funding from the Swedish International Development Assistance Baltic Unit in Visby) with visiting Polina Savchenko of *Coming Out* and ILGCN co-ordinator - St.Petersburg, Lukasz Palucki -- ILGCN Eastern European Secretariat * Warsaw and Siarhei Padssonny -- journalist and ILGCN ambassador - Belarus, who also made presentations at the RFSU Youth Center in Visby
on November 29 .

Discussions with local activists also covered plans for a Baltic Rainbow Festival in the Gotlandic capital in July, 2009. and continued co-operation with the Nordic Rainbow Council and the Nordic Rainbow Humanists during the year.

Tupilak and ILGCN plans for 2009:

Stockholm * Tupilak yearly meeting February
Riga * Baltic Pride May 15-17
Reykjavik * Solidarity with the Faroe Islands (with Nordic parliamentarians) Spring
Stockholm -- Nordic Focus on LGBT Nigeria (with Swedish Humanists) Spring.
Bucharest * ILGCN World Cultural Conference (stage 1) June
Budapest * ILGCN World Cultural Conference (stage 2) June
Visby * Rainbow Human Rights & Culture Festival July
Helsinki -- 10th Tribade Day & Night Festival: focus on Tallinn, St.Petersburg September .
St. Petersburg -- ILGCN World Conference (stage 3) September
Stockholm * Cultural evenings at Musik Valvet, Art Exhibition
(volunteers welcome!)

-- Bill Schiller, Tupilak international secretary and secretary general of ILGCN
(International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm

NOTE: Tupilak yearly membership fees greatly needed for Swedish,
Nordic, & international projects! (100 kr. post giro 498 37 67-7)

2008-11-14T14:43:00.000+01:00

NORDIC BALTIC WINTER GATHERING… www.tupilak.se

TUPILAK MEMBERS & FRIENDS -- on both sides of the Baltic!

We're pleased to invite you to a winter Nordic/Baltic rainbow human rights &
cultural happening in Stockholm on:

November 30, 2008 Musik Valvet
(Svartmangatan 27 Gamla Stan) 17.00-22.00

...to meet some of our visiting colleagues from the region (thanks to funding from the Swedish International Development Assistance Baltic Unit in Visby on the island of Gotland) and a few representatives from other organizations working with us to discuss international co-operation and coming projects:

Krakow -- The Turbulent Battle of Flowers -- at the tomb of the homosexual 15th Century King

Helsinki -- The 10th Tribade Day & Night Festival: September 2009 -- with a special focus on Tallinn, St. Petersburg.

Minsk -- Where rainbows are still in chains.

Vilnius -- Where the rainbow flag is still banned.

Visby -- A Nordic/Baltic rainbow human rights & culture festival, July 2009?

Photo/ ill: Willi Reichhold

St. Petersburg -- Russian Co-operation with Sweden and Finland 2009.

Stockholm -- Nordic Focus on LGBT Nigeria (via the Nordic Rainbow Humanists).

Kristall Nacht -- An international November salute to victims of Nazis/ neo Nazis.

Nordic Rainbow Memorials -- an initiative of ILGCN, Nordic Rainbow Council, Nordic Rainbow Humanists.

Music, Poetry, Art …. Wine and beer at low cost.

No entrance fees for Tupilak members and invited friends.

-- Bill Schiller, Tupilak international secretary and secretary general of the International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network: Information Secretariat - Stockholm

ILGCN www.tupilak.ilgcn.org

2008-10-09T02:01:00.017+02:00

ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network)
Press Release September 30, 2008

Including Salutes to Uganda, Iran, LGBT Exiles Around the World:
2008 World Cultural Conferences:
Finland, USA

Helsinki/Minneapolis-St. Paul/Stockholm—Art, photos, exhibitions, films, musical performances, seminars and discussions characterized the 1st stage of the 2008 ILGCN world rainbow cultural conference in the Finnish capital – November 14-16, part of the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival.

“We hope that the ILGCN input will also be part of our 10th jubilee festival next year,” says Anne Jaaskelainen, festival director and singer/song-writer, who also received the 2008 “Sowelu” award (for outstanding contributions from women in the Nordic sphere) from the Nordic rainbow cultural workers’ organization, Tupilak -- especially honoring her solidarity performances in Eastern Europe.

“We are really pleased to have our new Russian organization participating in the ILGCN conference, says Polina Savchenko from “Coming Out” –
St. Petersburg, and we hope that a future stage of the ILGCN conference can come to our city.”

The conference also approved a project linking the near-by cities of Stockholm-Helsinki-St- Petersburg for future rainbow cultural events, providing mutual co-operation and solidarity.

Also at the conference, the special ILGCN Nordic award “Arco Nordica” was presented to thenational Finnish LGBT organization, SETA for its support for Tribade festivals and ILGCN activities.

Willi Reichhold, Austria-Sweden

1st ILGCN World Cultural Conference in North America

The 2nd stage of this year’s ILGCN world conference took place at University of Minnesota venues in Minneapolis/St. Paul – September 19-21, the first ILGCN event ever in the United States. “We are also pleased to put a brighter spotlight on LGBT history and show the first work of our brand new travelling exhibition on this theme,” says Jean Tretter, secretary general of the ILGCN History Secretariat in Minneapolis/St.Paul.

“We are also proud of the conference’s well-attended, special performance of the LGBT Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra—which also gives great emphasis to playing the works of lesbian and gay classical composers,” Tretter adds.

“Our valuable discussions with the leading organizers of Minneapolis Pride and other activists here convince me that there is a real desire to increase American involvement in our battles on the rainbow barricaded in Eastern Europe and the possibilities that more American Prides will invite some of the courageous representatives from Belarus and other nations where the rainbow is still in chains or under siege,” says Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm.

Salute to gay researcher and educator, Magnus Hirschfeldt

“We are proud to announce that this year’s ILGCN “Orfeo Iris” award for essential information work about Nazi and neo Nazi persecution of homosexuals goes jointly to the Minnesota Libraries and the Magnus Hirschfeldt Society in Berlin for their outstanding exhibitions marking the 75th birthday of the pioneering Hirschfeldt’s Sexual Institute in Berlin which was destroyed by the Nazis,” adds Tretter.

“Speaking of history, we are pleased to send a salute to the coming October 31 ILGCN event in Krakow lifting a 15th century Swedish-Polish-Hungarian-Russian ruler into the rainbow spotlight – a ceremony organized by Lukasz Palucki, the secretaray general of the ILGCN Eastern European Secretariat -Warsaw, (luke.santi@eranet.pl) -- also to be attended by our ILGCN Hungarian cultural ambassadors,” says Schiller

“We are also proud to announce that the 2008 “Sappho in Paradise” award goes to Ugandan editor in exile, Kizza Musinguzi and his website gayrightsuganda.org -- crucial to an African LGBT community facing violent homophobia,” Schiller adds. “We hope the award diploma will be handed out in London where the Ugandan has found asylum.”

The award honors outstanding contributions to LGBT information, books, libraries and publications – and is co-ordinated both by the ILGCN Information Secretariat and the Paradise Press in London. This is the second time the award goes to Africa – earlier going to the Library Project of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe. At both world conference stages, examples from the Tupilak/ILGCN Travelling Art & Photo Exhibition were displayed -- including works from Norway to Latvia, Russia to Denmark, Sweden to Spain, Finland to Germany, and photos of the ILGCN delegation to Bucharest Pride this year.

LBGT’s in Exile & Violence in Iran Focal Points in Canada

The 3rd stage of this year’s ILGCN world conference will take place in Toronto, Canada November 14-16 – giving special attention to LGBT’s in exile and the brutal situation for homosexuals in Iran. This is the first time an ILGCN event is taking place in Canada.

“We are offering a great program of art work, seminars, films and musical performances,” says Michael Gfroerer, secretary general of the ILGCN North American Secretariat – Toronto (he is also an ILGCN “Orfeo Musica” prize winner). “And of course we welcome other ILGCN cultural ambassadors, co-ordinators as well as other rainbow cultural workers to the gathering.” michaelgfroerer@gmail.com

The Canadian conference also hopes to follow tradition by confirming new ILGCN ambassadors and co-ordinators as well as next year’s world conference sites. Proposals so far have come from Bucharest, Budapest, St. Petersburg and Istanbul. ILGCN world conferences are traditionally shared by different cities to make it easier for those unable to afford travelling long distances, since the ILGCN has no travel funds for participants.

******************************
Supporting the ILGCN Information Secretariat:

Nordic rainbow cultural workers www.ilgcn.tupilak.org info@tupilak.org www.tupilak.org

2008-09-03T18:09:00.011+02:00

ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) CALLING*
September 2, 2008

.. to ILGCN ambassadors, co-ordinators, supporters and international press.

Attached are the programs for the ILGCN world cultural conference stages no. 1 in Helsinki (September 13-14), stage 2 in Minneapolis (September 19-21) and stage no. 3 in Toronto (November 14 and November 16, 2008.

11th WCC Minneapolis program

11TH ILGCN WCC program Helsinki

11th WCC Toronto program

Any additional ILGCN people are very welcome in person - contacts are listed in the ILGCN conference press release (see website
www.ilgcn.tupilak.org )

Suggestions for 2009 ILGCN conference stages are welcome at all the above stages, The same for new ambassadors, co-ordinators, etc. and ILGCN awards.

Proposal: That the ILGCN *Arco Nordica* 2008 go to the national Finnish LGBT organization, SETA, for its emphasis on rainbow culture, assistance to the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival and assistance to the ILGCN world conference stage.

Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN Information
Secretariat - Stockholm

__________________________________

11TH ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network)
WORLD CULTURAL CONFERENCE HELSINKI (stage 1)
September 13-14, 2008

(stage 2: Minneapolis -- September 19-21. stage 3: Toronto --November 13-14, 2008)

Friday, September 12 (21.00): Tribade Party (Restaurant Botta, Museokatu 10)

Bill Schiller - greetings from the ILGCN Information Secretariat Jenny Gabrielsson - songs, music (present Swedish ILGCN cultural
ambassador)

At the SETA Office (Mannerheimintie 170 A 5th floor) :

Saturday, September 13 18.00-21:00 Seminars, film, art performances:

*Rainbow Culture in Finland* - Anne Jaaskelainen, Tribade festival

*ILGCN: stretching rainbows over borders* -- Bill Schiller, ILGCN-Stockholm

*Rainbow Culture in St. Petersburg* -- Representative of *Coming Out*

Film: *They Still Smile* - Irina Sislova, Belarus

Jenny Gabrielsson - songs, music (present Swedish ILGCN cultural ambassador)

Peter Fröberg -- songs, music (former Swedish ILGCN cultural ambassador)

Sunday, September 14 13.00-16:00 Seminars, film, art:

*Rainbows in Chains: Lithuania, Belarus* - ILGCN

*Nordic Rainbow Cultural Co-operation with Eastern Europe* - Bill

Schiller, ILGCN-Stockholm, Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers)

Films: *Tolerancja* (The Battle of Krakow) - Diana Voxerbrant,Swedish-Polish

2008 ILGCN awards, Approval of 2009 ILGCN world conference stages,

Exhibitions Saturday and Sunday:

Tupilak & ILGCN Travelling Art/Photo Exhibition

Samples from ILGCN History Collection - Minneapolis

ILGCN in Romania -- Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian participation along with 200
colleagues and 1,200 police at Bucharest Pride 2008) - Jussi Jaaskelainen

anne.jaaskelainen@nokia.com
info@tupilak.org
______________________________________________________________

11th ILGCN World Rainbow Culture Conference program
- stage 2 MINNEAPOLIS/St. PAUL, USA.
September 19-21, 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008 - registration all day, opening reception
and welcome from 5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (free to all registered conference attendees.)

Note: The opening reception will also feature the unveiling of the newly redesigned
GLBT World History Exhibit.

Saturday, September 20, 2008 - 7 p.m.

The Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra (the local GLBT symphony orchestra) will present a full symphony concert as part of the
conference. (free to all registered conference attendees).

Special presentations:

*Rainbows in Chains in Belarus - the last dictatorship in Eastern Europe* - Slava Bortnik,

LGBT Amnesty group -- Minsk/Gomel.
Modern Chinese Gay Poetry

Rainbow Music -- Michael Gfroerer- Canadian composer/musician,

*Nordic Rainbow Co-operation with Eastern Europe - rainbows under siege* Bill Schiller,
Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers), Nordic Rainbow Council

Panel Discussion:

*What is the International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network?*
Stretching rainbows over borders, working on local rainbow barricades,
co-operating with other international LGBT organizations such as the
ILGA, GALHA (humanists) etc. Nick Tretter -- ILGCN History
Secretariat - Minneapolis, Bill Schiller -- ILGCN Information
Secretariat - Stockholm

Workshops:

Setting up LGBT libraries in Eastern Europe. Making contributions to
these libraries -- ilgcn hISTORY sECRETARIAT.

Art & Photography - The Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers) &
ILGCN Travelling Art & Photo Exhibition - works from Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden,
Russia, Germany, Spain.

Short films:

*Tolerancja - the rainbow battle of Krakow* (Sweden/Poland) (30
min. English subtitles
*Precious Moments* (Norway) (15 min. English subtitles)
*The Muscle Academy -- Tom of Finland* (Finland) (60 min.
English subtitles)
*They Still Smile* - (Belarus) (30 min. English subtitles)

Press Accreditation, assistance with interviews, photos, etc.

Note: all journalists attending the conference should contact:

Marlo Welshons
Communications Director
University of Minnesota Libraries
499 Wilson Library
309 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

(612) 625-9148; fax: (612) 626-9353
welsh066@umn.edu

Conference co-ordinator: Nick Tretter, ILGCN secretary general of the
ILGCN History Secretariat, University of Minnesota

trett007@umn.edu

____________________________________________________________

International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network
CULTURAL CONFERENCE, 3rd stage -- TORONTO
Friday Nov. 14, Sun. Nov. 16, University of Toronto

The International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network was created at the
ILGA world conference in Paris in 1992 to promote international rainbow
culture and exchange across borders. The ILGCN is not a booking agency,
has no membership fee and no funds of its own * but tries to
facilitate contact between organizations and individuals * convinced
that both cultural workers and political activists belong together on
the rainbow barricades * using homo culture as a powerful weapon
against homophobia and silence. Special support is given to those facing
dictatorial regimes, oppressive religious leaders, intolerant media and
gangs of neo-Nazis and other homophobes attacking rainbow events.

The Toronto Cultural Conference will attempt to deal with multi-plus
cultures of Toronto's lesbian and gay communities. Particular attention
will be focused on immigration issues.

Conference Speakers (proposed and confirmed)

Iranians in Exile (confirmed)
Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, Iranian Queer Organization IRQO and
ILGCN ambassador/coordinator for Iran "This is Arsham Parsi, board
member of IRanian Queer Organization. I should thank you Bibi for
supporting us for San Francisco event. The IRanian Queer Organization
(IRQO) takes full responsibility for the accuracy and credibility of
this information. Today, IRQO is the only active NGO that works on
behalf of the Iranian queer (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)
population around the world." "It documents human rights violations,
provides letters of support for Iranian queer asylum seekers and
refugees, and supports anti-homophobia efforts. Its documentation is
widely respected for its accuracy and credibility. IRQO is registered in
Ontario, Canada and is an official member of the following
organizations: The Brussels-based International Lesbian and Gay
Association (ILGA), the Stockholm-based International Lesbian and Gay
Cultural Network (ILGCN), the Toronto-based Rainbow Railroad group, and
the Berlin-based Advisory Committee of the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation
for LGBT Human Rights. IRQO is an international, non-profit, queer human
rights organization based in Toronto, Canada with key workers in Europe
and Iran. They help Iranian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
refugees all over the world. They help when Iranian lesbians or gay men
are threatened with deportation back to Iran. They also help

EXPRESS (confirmed)
Express is a safe and supportive space where newcomers to Canada and/or
immigrant queer youth find a place gather, share ideas, questions, and
have fun!

EXPRESS targets and provides support for youth between16 and 29 who are
immigrants, newcomers to Canada, refugees, refugee claimants and
non-status queer and trans youth. Most of the participants are young
people coming from countries and/or cultures where it's not safe, legal
or easy to be queer or trans.

EXPRESS includes a weekly meeting on Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. The project
had a number of newcomer/immigrant queer youth involved from more than
20 different nationalities and/or ethnicities since May of 2002.

Some of the youth participating in EXPRESS can not - due to work
commitment or school schedule - attend all the weekly meetings, and some
other newcomer/immigrant queer youth have not been able to participate
in any of the meetings because of family or cultural pressures over
their sexuality. An internet based group and mailing list has been
created to maintain some level of connection between the youth and
provide some of the support they need outside the regular meeting hours.
Please contact Suhail by email soynewcomer(at)sherbourne(dot)on(dot)ca
or at 416 - 324 5080 to be added to the mailing list

Some of the youth participating in EXPRESS are refugee claimants on the
basis of their sexual orientation. The project provides significant
direct support to these youth in this process as well as the personal
and emotional support they receive at the drop-in meetings. Since the
launch of the project a significant number of youth participants have
gained their legal status in Canada with support from EXPRESS.

Facilitator's Bio:
Suhail Abualsameed is a community worker and a public speaker who*s
concerned with issues of multiculturalism, diversity, identity and the
social determinants of health among many others.

Suhail has been running SOY's newcomer/immigrant queer youth program
since 2002. He has also coordinated community based research of TeenNet
(a research project based at the department of Public Health Sciences at
the University of Toronto) in the Middle east since 2004. He recently
initiated and started coordinating a Community Based Research project
addressing HIV/AIDS issues among the Muslim communities in the GTA.

Peter Bernier (confirmed)
I have been helping gay couples with immigration to Canada since 1994
when we got my partner his permanent residence. He has now become a
Canadian citizen and we recently celebrated our 15th anniversary. I am
one of Canada's most experienced experts on Canadian immigration for
gays. I am a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants
(CSIC) as required to represent you, a member of the Canadian
Association of Immigration Professionals (CAPIC), Co-Chair of CAPIC's
Ontario Education Committee, and a High Honours Graduate of the
Immigration Practitioner's Certificate Program. I have volunteered with
LEGIT in Toronto since 1994 when I founded LEGIT-Toronto

Nick Tretter from the ILGCN HistorySecretriat

Khush: South Asian Gay Men, P.O. Box 6172, Station A, Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1P6, Canada. Nelson (416) 461-4105, Deep (416) 922-3848.

South Asian AIDS Coalition of Toronto, Attn: Kaushalya Bannerji
c/o TCCLG, 517 College Street, Suite 308, Toronto, Canada. (416)
962-9023.

Black Coalition For AIDS Prevention (Black CAP) 416/977-9955

2 Spirited People Of The 1st Nations 416/944-9300
2-Spirited People Of The 1st Nations 416/944-9300 Ext. 226

Performance/Arts Presenters

Iranian Queer Poems (translated into English)
Saghi Ghahraman, Editor-in-Chief of Cheraq magazine

Evolutionary Girls Club: Art and Activism for Social Change
Erica Eaton, ILGCN cultural ambassador, USA

Rainbow Music on the Barricades
Michael Gfroerer, Canadian composer, ILGCN *Orfeo musica* award

Louis Laberge-Côté, dancer/choreographer, originally from: Québec
City,based in Toronto, Canada "one of Toronto Dance Theatre's most
admired company members" (The Globe and Mail), Louis Laberge-C?is known
for his "outstanding interpretation[s]" (CHYZ 94,3), his "masterful
physical control" (Paula Citron), his "wit and elegance" (NOW Magazine),
his "refreshing spontaneity" (National Post), and "his ability to infuse
even ordinary movements with drama" (Toronto Star).

Robert Quance, visual artist.

Joe Calleja, visual artist.

Tupilak/ILGCN travelling art and photo exhibit

Paul Lee, Toronto film-maker