SWEDISH BEAR AWARD HONORS ESTONIANS
Tallinn -- The second Nordic Rainbow Bear award of 2016 from Stockholm's Viking Bears has been handed over to Bearty-Tallinn at the Nordic Bear session in the Estonian capital April 15-17, 2016.
At the award ceremony held at the Estonian LGBT Center, the chairman of Viking Bears- Stockholm, Cha Wallentheim,read out the diploma's motivation which honored Bearty-Tallinn "..... for organizing this year's Nordic Bear session - the first such meeting on former Soviet territory, .....for underlining the fact that Bears everywhere are valuable and necessary warriors on the LGBT human rights barricades -- helping shatter stereotypes both within and outside of the rainbow community... for outstanding efforts to promote international contacts ... and for giving Bear culture an outstanding place to confirm that rainbow culture is a strong weapon against homophobia, intolerance and invisibility."
This year's Nordic Rainbow Award 2016 diploma is shared by the International Bear Carnival -- Maspalomas and this award diploma was handed over at that event in March.
"We are pleased to receive the award and to share it with our Spanish colleagues," says Alvar Ameljushenko of Bearty-Tallinn.
Bears International Impressed with the Estonian Bears
"We deeply impressed that it was the next-smallest Nordic nation to think so BIG in Nordic Bear terms -- for the first time putting this on in he digital world on the FaceBook map, making this a 3-day event so filled with Bear culture via discussions, beautiful art exhibits and music -- not just a closed-door meeting for a very few but open to all interested Bears -- not only from the Nordic nations of Sweden, Finland, Norway and Latvia but also from beyond the Nordic zone from Russia, Ukraine, Britain and Australia!,"says Bill Schiller of the newly-established Bears International. "This also confirms that Estonia and the other Baltic states are indeed part of the Nordic family!"
"We are also overjoyed that Bearty-Tallinn has also reached out beyond Bear borders by contributing crucially to the rent of the Estonian LGBT Center & Archives, the way that Bears-on-Ice contribute to Iceland's HIV/AIDS foundation and the Bears of Poland support the Warsaw LGBT Film Festival that reaches 8 other Polish cities as well!"
"We in Bears International are inspired by all of this and hope to contribute to relief assistance to LGBT refugees fleeing from persecution, imprisonment, murder and state execution," Schiller concludes.
More information: bill@tupilak.org
 |
| Tallinn award ceremony: Cha Wallentheim - Viking Bears (far left), Alvar Ameljushenko - Bearty-Tallinn Bears, Bill Schiller - Bears International, and John Earhart - Norway's Bamse Bears (far right). |
 |
| Nordic Rainbow Bear award to Maspalomas: Bill Schiller (left) Sweden, Lobo - Carnival Chief (center) and Peter Fröberg - Sweden, (photo by Angelo of Italy) |
