ILGCN Calling

Aleksandar Duvnjak - Serbia/Sweden

Alice Tsymbarevich - Estonia


 2nd NORDIC FIRE on the Rainbow Barricades in Eastern Europe Festival – May 2-6, 2012 in Stockholm.



Special focus on Nordic LGBT culture and co-operation with Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Russia and Belarus!


Interested in helping out? Contributing at panel discussions, art & photo exhibits, music, song, films, performances…? Hosting a foreign guest…?


Latvia -- with a salute to the 4th Baltic Pride, May 30-June 3, 2012

Estonia -- with Tallinn as the closest Nordic capital to Stockholm
Russia -- threatened with new, anti-LGBT legislation
Belarus -- where rainbows in chains are still struggling in a homophobic dictatorship  
Poland  -- new support for LGBT rights and culture

Other discussions planned during the festival:

Nordic Rainbow Co-operation with Eastern Europe

Swedish Media on Eastern Europe LGBT Battles
Swedish Films on Eastern European Barricades

Rainbow Culture on Iceland 
Rainbow Culture vs. Homophobia & Silence
Latest information on the 1st Nordic Workplace Forum & Career Fair -- Stockholm Mässan, August 2-3, 2012
Latest information from the Swedish parliament's LGBT group
UN Women supporting LGBT Rights

Visby: 1st Nordic LGBT Monument  (Photo by Willi Reichhold)

Nordic Rainbow Humanists on Eastern European Barricades 
Rainbow Culture on the HIV front
Creating more LGBT groups for the elderly
More Nordic LGBT Monuments -- next after Visby? (see www.tupilak.org)

Nordic, Belarus & Russian films, art work, photography, music and performances. 

Tupilak & ILGCN award ceremonies
...............................................................................................................................................


Supported by Tupilak, Nordic Rainbow Humanists, Nordic-Baltic-Polish-Russian-Belarus Network
_________________________________________________________________________


1ST NORDIC LGBT WORKPLACE FORUM &
CAREER FAIR -- Stockholm Mässan -- 2-3 August, 2012


                                                                                                    http://nordic-lworkplace.org/





Help us man the Tupilak/ILGCN information booth!

Join the Tupilak & ILGCN International Travelling Rainbow Art & Photo Exhibition at the fair – concentrating this time on Nordic artists and foreign-born artists living in the Nordic zone!


Host a visitor from the Baltic states…?

Get in touch!




http://www.tupilak.org/           http://www.ilgcn.tupilak.org/                    bill@tupilak.org 

ERATO December 2011 - January 2012

ERATO-- publication of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - 

                                                                     Stockholm  

December 2011- January 2012
______________________________________________





Swedish delegation at LGBT center in Riga, February, 2012 

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.
_________________________________________________________________________________________   

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. (Continued on page 2)

__________________________________________________________________________________

 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) .

 ____________________________________________________________________________________

  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. 

 ___________________________________________________

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.  

  ___________________________________________________________________________

1st Nordic LGBT Workplace Forum....

 (Continued from page 1) Many LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people are closeted at their workplace, this leads to a decreased sense of well being and loss of productivity while at work. A conference in Stockholm, in August, will give Nordic companies and other organizations good advice on how to take advantage of the strengths in having a diverse workplace.

     A diverse combination of employees is good for a business as well as the work environment. However, many LGBT people do not feel they can be open about their sexual orientation. This is shown in the results of a survey that Q-Factor made among 1280 lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transpersons in Denmark. One can generally assume these results apply to workplace culture across the Nordics as often countries in this region have a lot of similarities.

    However, Q-Factor has begun a similar research in Sweden and results of this country-specific survey will be
presented at the conference.

   “In the Nordics, direct harassment or discrimination is luckily seldom experienced, but nonetheless it can feel difficult to stand out. Only about half of the respondents are completely open about their sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace. It is especially the employees in their 30s and 40s, while younger and older employees often hide their LGBT status. The answers clearly show that the people who are closeted use energy to hide this part of their identity and are, therefore, less productive,” says Pernille Steckhahn-Strohmer from Q-Factor.

   "Many isolate themselves, " she underlines. "That it is not about colleagues talking about sex during lunch break. But it is normal to talk to the colleagues about what they have done during the weekend for instance. Here, many LGBT people avoid saying ‘he’ or ‘she’, if the talk is about their partner – or they isolate themselves, so they do not have to talk about their life outside the workplace. If they, on the other hand, can be themselves, they will feel like an appreciated part of the employee community and they can focus on their work instead of worrying about what information has been disclosed to various colleagues,” says Pernille Steckhahn-Strohmer.

  One of the employees staying in the closet is a 24-year old gay man working in a large Nordic utility company in Sweden. “My colleagues have expressed disgust over homosexuals kissing in addition to joking about homosexual stereotypes. With these homophobic comments I don’t dare to come out,” says the 24-year old, who wishes to remain anonymous. He also mentioned that he does not know any “out” colleagues that he could look up to as role models.

    The results from Q-Factor’s Danish survey show that companies gain loyalty by explicitly promoting their inclusion of lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transpersons. One example is that a company sponsors or participates in a public LGBT event, or that the company has openly homosexual management, who are role models for hetero- as well as homosexual employees.

    The August 2-3 meeting -- the first Nordic conference and career fair -- at the Stockholm Mässan --will put the spotlight on strategies and tools that companies can use to take advantage of the strengths in having a diverse workplace, where lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transpersons are also free to be themselves.

      ”If a company can break down visible and invisible barriers it can become a preferred workplace for all types of employees. Thus, the organization can choose among the most talented people and retain the competencies already present in the company. A true win-win situation,” says Pernille Steckhahn-Strohmer.

FACTS

    Q-Factor is a non-profit organization based in Odense, Denmark, which works towards equality in the workplace with a focus on lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transpersons (called LGBT people). LGBT people represent five to ten percent of the overall population. See http://www.qfactor.dk/ .

    The Forum is targeted at public as well as private organizations. See www.nordic-lgbt-workplace.org or search for Nordic LGBT Workplace Forum on Facebook.

CONTACT: Pernille Steckhahn-Strohmer tel. +45 27 573 573, e-mail ps@qfactor.dk .

______________________________________________________________________________

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 Danish island of Bornholm, 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 website http://www.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.















Tupilak calling!

Hi dear members and supporters,

some news from our International secretary:

Summer meeting and a winter cruise! 

TUPILAK CALLING

1. STOCKHOLM MEETING with BECKY STECKHAHN-STROHMER of Denmark (and her partner!).  She is the CEO of the 1st Nordic LGBT Work Place and Career Fair -- Stockhlommässan,  August 2-3, 2012  (which has invited in Tupilak and its art work as a participant!) on Sunday, February 5th.     

Join us in the evening for drinks and a chat!

2. TUPILAK SOLIDARITY CRUISE from Stockhoholm to RIGA on Monday, FEBRUARY 6TH (See website!).  JOIN US?

Contact Bill Schiller, international secretary    bill@tupilak.org  

ERATO — covering rainbow cultural workers & friends 

ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat

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

                          __________________________________________________________



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)

                                                                                ________________________________________________________________________________________                                                                                                                                                                                        

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.

_____________________________________________________



(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)   

________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

________________________________________________________________

 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.

  _______________________________________________________



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.

_____________________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________________________________________

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)