Friday, November 24, 2006

ILGCN POZNAN CONFERENCE PART of EQUALITY WEEK

PRESS RELEASE
November 19, 2006

Rainbow Parade in Poland a Triumphant Success over Homophobes:

ILGCN POZNAN CONFERENCE PART of EQUALITY WEEK

Poznan - The 3rd stage of the ILGCN world rainbow culture conference
2006 in this western Polish city was a successful part of a highly
impressive week-long cultural, social and political festival including
discussions, debates, performances and exhibitions - culminating with a
triumphant rainbow parade with police clearing the homphobes and neo
Nazis determined to occupy the final meters of "Freedom Square."

Waiving rainbow flags from the podium and speakers at the
microphone denouncing homophobia earned loud cheers from the parade
participants who had refused to abort the march forcing the police to
take action - a sharp contrast to last year's homophobic, violent
attacks and police lethargy and arrests of LGBT participants.

Rainbow Culture, Humanist LGBT Support, New E.E. Secretariat

The conference includes reports on ILGCN activities in Poland by
Warsaw-based cultural ambassador, Lukasz Palucki and information work
carried out by the ILGCN secretariat in Stockholm. Rolf Solheim
reported on Humanist work in his native Norway and world humanist
support for LGBT rights.

"We are very pleased to have approved the idea of a new ILGCN
Secretariat for Eastern Europe in Warsaw - to give special emphasis on
the situations in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and elsewhere," says Bill
Schiller of the Information Secretariat.

The conference also confirmed the sites of next year's
conference stages - in Mauritius and Vilnius, for Iranians in exile
(Toronto) and Algerians in exile (Paris/Marseille). The conference
approved new cultural ambassadors and co-ordinators from Lithuania,
Italy, Mauritius and Iran. (see website)

Because the 2nd ILGCN conference stage to be held in Minsk
November 3-5 was cancelled after KGB arrests of the organizers, the
Poznan conference approved plans to hold ILGCN "Belarus in Exile"
events in 2007 in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. (The Poznan stage
replaced the stage scheduled for Jerusalem postponed because of the war.)

ILGCN Support for Europride & Outgames, Grizzly Bear Award to Poznan

Conference participants also approved support for ILGCN
activities in Poland when Stockholm and Warsaw share Europride 2008
events and continuing efforts to help the 2nd Outgames -- blending
human rights, culture and sports in Copenhagen in 2009 -- focus on the
crucial rainbow battles on Eastern European barricades.

Conference "Rainbow Warrior" awards were handed out to
Poles providing special help to the conference and LGBT identity in
Poland, and the organizers of the Poznan "Equality Week" received
the ILGCN "Grizzly Bear" 2006 for carrying out the successful
festival in the face of threats and shadows of last year's violence.

Also during the week, the ILGCN Warsaw ambassador and the
Information Secretariat protested over the Polish President's
statements on BBC news that gay culture "threatened to make
heterosexual culture disappear" as ridiculous and homophobic.

Moscow 2006 Stage Terminated by Bloody Violence

The first stage of the 2006 ILGCN world rainbow culture
conference took place in Moscow in May -- including a special 'Nordic
Lights' presentation supported by the Nordic Council's culture fund
and the Norwegian Embassy. However, the three days of events ended with
a bloody, violent, and tear-gas filled battle on Red Square with both
homophobes and police attacking LGBT activists trying to place flowers
at a memorial -- since the Pride parade itself was banned by the mayor
and condemned by all religious leaders in the city.

More information, photos:
Lukasz Palucki www.santi-moblog.pl santi@santi.net.pl

Information Secretariat www.ilgcn.tupilak.se

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Supporting the ILGCN Information Secretariat:

TUPILAK -- Nordic rainbow cultural workers

Nordic Rainbow Council

Nordic Rainbow Humanists

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

The annual ILGCN "Arco Nordica" 2006 award

Press Release from the International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network
Information Secretariat in Stockholm:

The annual ILGCN "Arco Nordica" 2006 award goes to Sweden's
Pol-Balt Network for pioneering efforts uniting many groups in this
Scandinavian nation - big and small, political, social and cultural -
into an active network linking colleagues at home and with those on the
barricades on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea - Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania and Poland," says Bill Schiller, secretary general at the
secretariat.

"This comes at a crucial time when new waves of violent homophobia
and political and religious hostility threaten the rainbow struggle for
human rights. The network promotes awareness, solidarity and
action."

The award is presented in collaboration with the Nordic Rainbow
Council and Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers).

The ILGCN Arco Nordica has gone earlier to a number of pioneering
organizations in the Nordic region promoting cultural and political
rights to those realizing that efforts to cross borders enhances rather
than weakens the colors of the rainbow, and that putting a focus also on
the darker sides of the rainbow makes the whole rainbow that much more
brilliant.

Information: info@tupilak.se www.ilgcn.tupilak.se

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Sappho in Paradise Award to Kyrgyzstan, Sweden

ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm

(International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) www.tupilak.ilgcn.se


Press Release October 25, 2006

'Labrys' Publication in Bishkek, 'Normal' Publishers in Stockholm

Sappho in Paradise Award to Kyrgyzstan, Sweden

London/StockholmThis year's library and publishing award from the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network and Paradise Press is shared by 'Labrys' -- a pioneering publication in the former Soviet republic of Krygyzstan and the Stockholm-based, lesbian-owned 'Normal' publishers -- giving special emphasis to rainbow novels, literature, documentaries, biographies and photography.

"The Labrys publication is honored with the "Sappho in Paradise 2006" for its courageous struggle to create rainbow visibility in a region where rainbow identities are fighting for existence and where rainbow rights are under threat in a hostile environment," according to the ILGCN motivation.

"The Stockholm award winners are women who have brilliantly and successfully challenged forces in the publishing world so often dominated by hetero, macho and commercial interests -- only rarely and reluctantly giving space to the high quality of rainbow writers and photographers of Swedish and foreign backgrounds."

Joining Estonian, British, Danish, Latvian, Zimbabwean Winners

The award diploma also includes the latest publication of the Paradise Press in London and is named after the ancient Greek poet. The 1st 'Sappho in Paradise' – announced at the ILGCN world conference on homo culture in Berlin in 2003-- went to the pioneering, lesbian & gay Mea Culpa Library in Tallinn – the 1st of its kind in Estonia. The 2004 award went jointly to the courageous and pioneering Gays the Word Bookshop in London and the Danish-Latvian-owned Atena Publishing House in Riga and the 2005 award went to the Library Project of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ).

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More information: info@tupilak.se