måndag 1 augusti 2005

Nordic Homo Council Sessions 2005 in Norway, Finland

A member of the ILGA & ILGCN
Information Stockholm, August, 2005

Oslo/Tampere/Stockholm -- This year's Nordic Homo Council sessions in Oslo (June 21st -- on the sidelines of Europride,) and Tampere (July 8th -- part of Finland's rotating Pride) approved a number of new Nordic projects and called for increased Nordic rainbow co-operation – with special emphasis on events on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea.

"We're happy to put the focus on Nordic art and photography at this year's Tupilak art exhibit in Stockholm the week before Pride, host the 3rd Nordic Queer Short Film Festival in the Swedish capital on July 28 -- again with the assistance of the Nordic Council's information office in Stockholm, Norden i Fokus, include a seminar on Nordic co-operation at the Pride House events, and make the Tupilak Cabaret a Nordic event with Swedish, Norwegian, Estonian, Finnish and Icelandic performers, music and art work," says Bill Schiller, NHC information secretary.

The sessions also pledged support to the Moonbow cultural festival in Tallinn August 8-14, 2005 -- including the 2nd stage of the ILGCN world homo cultural conference which was moved to Estonia after Jerusalem postponed its World Pride event until 2006.

Special Attention for Poland, Belarus

The gatherings pledged to make another attempt to win support from Nordic embassies in Poland for future Nordic-Polish rainbow solidarity events, and re-open the doors of the Nordic House in Krakow to Nordic events (the House closed the doors to Nordic cultural events this year during the Krakow rainbow cultural event and described Nordic homo culture as "too controversial."

The sessions pledged support for a major Nordic rainbow cultural festival in Finland next year -- together with the Tribade Night & Day Festival and the Vinokino film festival -- and another Riga Moonbow Festival in 2006.

Special support was pledged for the NHC's "Belarus Moonbow in Exile" festival and conference in Stockholm September 23-24, 2005 -- with participation of colleagues from this Eastern European dictatorship as well as activists from Estonia and Latvia.

torsdag 2 juni 2005

Finland’s Pride in Tampere, Sidelines of EuroPride, Oslo 2005

PRESS RELEASE June 2, 2005
Nordic Homo Council Sessions in Norway and Finland

Stockholm – The sessions of the 5th Nordic Homo Council are being shared this year by two Nordic cities staging very special events: Oslo's EuroPride in June and Tampere – hosting Finland's annual Pride celebrations in July.

"We hope this makes it easier for more members in the vast Nordic region to meet face to face and not just via e-mail," says Bill Schiller, the council's international secretary and chairman of Tupilak, the Nordic organization of lesbian and gay cultural workers.

"We plan on continuing to give special attention to the use of homo culture to combat homophobia and silence and increase co-operation with our members on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea – since the situations for homosexuals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are the roughest in the Nordic region."

"As a member of the ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) and the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network), we also want to discuss efforts to strengthen the Nordic rainbow voice in these and other international organizations," Schiller concludes.

The first session of the 2005 meeting will be in Oslo at the Humanist House on the sidelines of EuroPride as part of the Nordic and international solidarity presentation on June 21st and in Tampere at Café Mixei as part of the Nordic presentation on July 9th.

Earlier Nordic Homo Council sessions and seminars have been held
in Stockholm, Riga, Tallinn and Vaasa.

More information: http://www.tupilak.se/