ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm
(International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network)
www.ilgcn.tupilak.se
PRESS RELEASE February 28, 2007
VILNIUS LAUNCHES 2007 WORLD CONFERENCE STAGES
Vilnius/Stockholm - The Lithuanian capital will be the first "stop" for this year's ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) world rainbow cultural conference stages - followed by Mauritius (tderavel@intnet.mu )at the end of May (the first ILGCN confer-ence in Africa), the Toronto-based "Iran in Exile" (info@arshampasi.net) stage in June, and the Paris/Marseille-based "Algeria in Exile"(amineh.kouider@btinternet.com) stage in October.
"We invite all interested in international solidarity and rainbow culture to join us in Vilnius in May 18 - the day after our IDAHO celebrations - for this first ILGCN event in our country," says ILGCN Lithuanian co-ordinator, Arvydas Vogilis (avo@takas.lt ).
Plans are also to give prominent space to a "Belarus in Exile" event at the conference - following last year's arrests and the KGB torpedoing the planned ILGCN stage in Minsk last November.
Nordic Rainbow Council, Humanists
"We're also pleased that the Vilnius event will include this year's sessions of the Nordic Rainbow Council (promoting co-operation over Nordic borders and beyond), and the annual Nordic Rainbow Humanist gathering - especially discussing the ugly outburst of the Lithuanian church against homosexuality and the many members of parliament giving open support for this medieval, homophobic intolerance -- a threat to all our human rights and rainbow cultural identity," says Bill Schiller, international secretary of the Council and secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat in Stockholm.
"We also plan to give a special Nordic tribute to our LGBT humanist colleagues in Nigeria who are courageously publically condemning the Nigerian parliament's draconian proposal to ban homosexual relations and even social contact between lesbians and gays," Schiller adds.
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Photo caption: Arvydas Vogilis in Moscow for the 1st Pride 2006
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