BEAR AWARDS AT ILGCN/TUPILAK EVENT IN STOCKHOLM

    Stockholm -- At this the year's last Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers) and ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm in the Swedish capital on December 16, a number of Bear award diplomas were handed out and announced.

        The ILGCN Rainbow Warrior 2017 was shared by Finnish dancers and choreographers of the prize-winning ERI dance theater of the city of Turku/Åbo  and the Helsinki Gay Theater -- strongly supported by Finnish Bears -- and celebrating its 10th anniversary. At the Stockholm event,  Joachim of the Nordic Bears-Sweden described the prize award ceremony which took place recently for the theater crew at the Bear Park Café in the Finnish capital.

    The ILGCN's "Arco Nordica 2017" for outstanding work in the Nordic zone is shared by the Icelandic Bears, "Bears on Ice" -- an internatonal social and cultural event every September started in 2005 -- and Iceland's national LGBT organization Samtökin ´78.

                                                              BEARS INTERNATIONAL AWARDS IN 2018

    Meanwhile, Bears International's Stockholm office is eager to receive nominations for the annual Bears International culture diplomas for 2018. The plan is to announce the winners and hand over diplomas at the Bearty-Tallinn event in the Estonian capital in April.   Like Tupilak and ILGCN awards, Bears International awards do not contain any financial contribution but are given with golden appreciation for work well done

Photos:   Bears on Ice, Helsinki Gay Theater

AWARDS AT ILGCN/TUPILAK EVENT IN STOCKHOLM

    Stockholm -- At this the year's last Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers) and ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm in the Swedish capital on December 16, a number of award diplomas were handed out and announced.

    The ILGCN "Orfeo Musica -- Vadim Kozin"** award was presented to gay, veteran Swedish singer and songwriter, Jan Hammarlund, for outstanding contributions to LGBT music. Hammarlund,  who thanked the organizers for the diploma, had several years earlier received Tupilak's "Thor's Hammar" award diploma.  The 2017 music award is shared with Swedish lesbian singer and song writer, Christina Kjellsson of the west coast city of Gothenburg.

    Other awards announced during the event included the ILGCN Rainbow Warrior 2017 going to Finnish dancers and choreographers Tiina Lindfors, Eeva Soini and Lassi Sairela of the prize-winning ERI dance theater of the city of Turku/Åbo for years-long work often including LGBT elements in their dance and theater performances.  The 2017 award is shared with the for the Nordic zone unique Helsinki Gay Theater celebrating its 10th anniversary. At the Stockholm event,  Joachimof the Nordic Bears-Sweden described the prize award ceremony which took place recently for the theater crew at the Bear Park Café in the Finnish capital.

    The ILGCN's "Arco Nordica 2017" for outstanding work in the Nordic zone is shared by the Icelandic Bears, "Bears on Ice" and the national LGBT organizationSamtökin ´78 of Iceland.

                                                                                Salute to Swedish Singer/Actor Rikkard Wolff

   The evening included a moment of silence for the last Swedish gay singer/actor Rikard Wolff with the playing of one of his songs. Wolff, who died after a years-long lung disease, earlier received Tupilak's "Thors Hammar" award.

       The photo exibition displayed that evening honored some of the performances and Pride events by Swedish singer and song writer, Peter Fröberg, celebrating his 50th birthday year, including Pride events in a number of Swedish cities, in Minsk, Warsaw, Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen and elsewhere  -- as well as the historic LGBT visit to Auschwitz with the presentation of the ILGCN  "Orfeos Iris" 2000 award for information about LGBT people in Nazi and other concentration camps.

-----

** The award is named after the ancient Greek singer/musician who charmed the demons of the underworld and after returning to the Earth, turning his love to men, and the once-famous Russian singer Vadim Kozin - "the Soviet Tango King" who came out as gay after the revolution but who was banished from public life by Stalin and exiled permanently to Siberia.

Press Release November 4, 2017 

2nd NORDIC RAINBOW HISTORY MONTH  ENDS in October 2017             

                                                

  Stockholm -- The 2nd Nordic Rainbow History & Art Month -- October, 2017 has come to an end with successful events in Umeå, Tallinn, Rakvere, Stockholm, Södertälje, Gothenburg, Riga, Vilnius, Reykjavik, Turku/Åbo and Helsinki including discussions, seminars, presentations, poetry readings, film screenings, art and photography exhibitions,  theater/dance performances, drama monologues, song and music concerts and award ceremonies.

   "We were especially proud to end our LGBT history month in Finland --  in Turku/Åbo with prize-winning Finnish dancers/choreographers Tiina Lindfors, Eeva Soine and Lassi Sairela of the prize-winning Eri dance theater company and in Helsinki at the prize-winning Bear Park Café  -- as  this Nordic nation celebrates its 100th anniversary of independence," says Bill Schiller of the ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) and Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers.)   "No nation's history is complete without LGBT history and the enormous contribution of LGBT people to a nation's culture and history!"  Eri also presented an evening performance at their theater saluting Finland´s 100 year anniversary with powerful LGBT elements. 

    "We were very pleased to have had Prof. Sue Sanders of the LGBT History Month-UK join us at the Stockholm and Södertälje stages of the Nordic Month and Tony Fenwick, CEO of Schools-Out-UK join us in Riga and Vilnius, as well as Oslo activist Rolf Solheim who made presentations about Norwegian LGBT history in Turku/Åbo and Helsinki," Schiller ads. 

        Unable to join the Vilnius stage of the Month because of the lack of funds, LGBT journalists and Lokys Bears of Belarus sent the participants a strong plea for co-operation and underlining the worsening situation for LGBT people in this the last dictatorship of Eastern Europe.

                                                   TUPILAK AND ILGCN AWARDS TO LGBT'S IN DENMARK, SWEDEN, FINLAND, ESTONIA

       Speaking at the Stockholm session about her books such as "Homonationalism," Swedish journalist/author Anna-Maria Sörberg also received the 2017 Tupilak "Sowelu" award (for outstanding LGBT cultural contributions from women).  Tupilak's  2017 "Thor's Hammer" award diplomas (for outstanding LGBT cultural contributions from men) handed out during the month went to Keio Soomelt -- organizer of the 1st LGBT Film Festival in Rakvere, Estonia -- and to Mikko Misha Autio of the Bear Park Café and the Helsinki Gay Theater.   The editor of the research blog "Femine Moments," Birthe Havmöller of Denmark, finally received her ILGCN's 2015 "Orfeo Imago" award diploma (for outstanding contributions to LGBT art and photography) in person at the Stockholm event where she also made a presentation of her international collection of art and photos of lesbian and bi-sexual woman all over the world -- a well-illustrated presentation which she also made at the Södertälje Art Gallery. 

     The events in Stockholm event  included song and music performances from the Swedish duo, "Weed," performing also in Södertälja at the city's Art Gallery along with veteran Swedish singer/song writer, Jan Hammarlund, asylum-seeking members of the Russian "Pussy Riot" group, Sweden's Zafire Vrba describing verbal retaliation to anti-trans insults and Sweden's Anders Ödvall, singing Brazilian songs and describing the life and songs of the late, gay Brazilian singer, Renato Russo.

                                                                    MORE NORDIC CITIES NEXT YEAR...?

   "The Nordic Month organizers really appreciate the solidarity of local, regional and national organizations supporting the event as well as many rainbow culture workers and activists. We also sincerely hope that those Nordic cities which could not be with us this year will join us in 2018 -- to help us confirm that Nordic LGBT solidarity is strong and that LGBT history and culture are an essential part of our battle for human rights and visibility -- and that although the Nordic nations and semi-independent  territories may be small, together we are a real power house!" 

     "We are also pleased that we could confirm Tupilak's founding decision 25 years ago to include the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as solid members of the Nordic family -- and that we could include all three in this year's Nordic Month.  We also want Nordic co-operation to include all of us on the rainbow barricades -- not only lesbians and gays but also trans, bi-sexuals, Bears, immigrants/refugees, the differently-abled, HIV positives and negatives, young and elderly and all others, " says Schiller.

                          BRITISH, HUNGARIAN, NORDIC HISTORY MONTHS, BELARUS -- FUTURE COOPERATION...?

    After discussions with British, Hungarian and Nordic organizers of the Nordic Rainbow History Month -- and with colleagues in neighboring Belarus sharing a border with Latvia and Lithuania --  we hope to work together with future LGBT History Months in  these nations to help combat invisibility and intolerance in all our countries, to promote mutual exchange, cultural input, promotion and historic relevance -- and to support  the LGBT battle for human rights, solidarity and rainbow visibility in East and West," Schiller concludes.

Bill Schiller,  Tupilak/ILGCN

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Statement from Belarus:

 Dear Bill! dear colleagues!

Thank you very much for this wonderful and highly needed idea of starting the international LGBT history cooperation network!

On behalf of our Belarusian LGBT Journalists' Community at 'Journalists for Tolerance' human rights group, I would like to express full support to the idea!

Looking forward to closer cooperation with all of you, dear friends!

With warm regards,

Andrus K.,

Belarusian LGBT Journalists' Community, 'J4T'

..........................................................................................

2. "THANKS" to participants, supporters: 

The 2nd Nordic Rainbow Month thanks special participants and supporters:

Kjell Rindar, Swedish teacher/former RFSL; Swedish film maker Cecilia Neant-Falk;  RFSL Newcomers - Stockholm; Rakvere Heartfest Film Festival;  Estonian culture activist Keio Soomelt; Estonian film co-ordinator Tiina Teras; Alvar Ameljushenko of Bearty-Tallinn; Estonian singer Erkki Otsman, Eastonian Gay League; Turku-based Finnish dancers/choreographers Tiina Lindfors, Eeva Soini and Lassi Sairela; PositHIVa gruppen-Stockholm; Nordic Association-Stockholm; Umeå Pride; Helsinki's Bear Park Cafe's Mikko Misha Autio; Norwegian activist Rolf Solheim; Sue Sanders - LGBT History Month-UK; Tony Fenwick - Schools-Out, UK; Budapest resident Rian Chen; Belarus activist Sidnimax; Belarus journalist Andrus K.; Anna Giertz of Lesbian Front - Sweden; Swedish painter and trans activist Andrea Sjöfelt; Frosti Jonsson of Bears-on-Ice - - Reykjavik;  Daníel Arnarsson of Samtökin ´78 - Iceland; Danish photographer Birthe Havmöller; Top Club - Riga and manager Eduard Niki; Swedish music duo "Weed;"  Swedish singer/song-writer Jan Hammarlund;  Swedish journalist Anna-Maria Sörberg; Sweden's Anders Ödvall; Södertälje Art Gallery and producer Sarah Florén; Södertälje Kommun; Swedish artist/performer Zafire Vrba; Swedish poet Tomas Åberg; Swedish photographer/film maker Willi Reichhold; Swedish singer/activist Peter Fröberg, Norwegian Embassy - Helsinki; "Unchechen" by film maker Stephen Hornby, UK; Swedish film maker Alexi Carpentieri and Valand Academy Cinema - Gothenburg; Swedish author/historian Arne Nilsson, Sidetrack Pub - Stockholm;  Secret Garden Pub - Stockholm; Swedish drama performer Carl Olof Berg; works of Polish LGBT art curator Pawel Leszkowicz; Lithuanian Gay League and volunteer photographer/activist Giordano Campanelli of Italy; Augustinas and his Paviljon Café, Vilnius. 

Add Mikko Misha Autio receives the Tupilak Thor's Hammar award diploma at the Bear Park Café in Helsinki. Also standing, Bill Schiller of Tupilak/ILGCN. Sitting: Rolf Solheim of Norway.

Keio Soomelt receives Tupilak's Thor's Hammar award diploma at Festheart Film Festival in Rakvere, Estonia

ILGCN to HONOR ANTI-FASCIST DAY NOVEMBER 9

Stockholm -- The ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) will mark November 9, 2017 as "Kristallnacht" -- the international day against fascism and intolerance at the Old Town pub Secret Garden (Kornhamnstorg 59).

Report on the 11-city 2nd Nordic Rainbow History & Art Month - October, 2017 -- Bill Schiller, ILGCN Information Secretariat-Stockholm

"Kristallnacht" poem written by Tomas Åberg

Film: "LGBT Monuments" -- Willi Reichhold

ILGCN's  "Roger Casement's Black Diaries" award diploma for journalism to Ulf Andersson, Amnesty Press

Monologues:  "The Grey Ghosts of Tefía"    "The Angels of Zemaitijos"   

Photo: At the last stage of the Nordic Month, Finland's Mikko Misha Autio holding his "Thor's Hammer" (for men's cultural work) award diploma fromTupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers) at his Bear Park Café  in Helsinki. Also standing: Bill Schiller - ILGCN-Stockholm. Sitting: Rolf Solheim from Norway, 

BEARS INTERNATIONAL CULTURE DAYS IN STOCKHOLM

   Stockholm -- An international gathering of Bears and Bear organizations saluted Bear culture in the Swedish capital on a two-day Bear International event September 6-7, 2017 with presentations, art work and films.

    One of the aims of the event was to illustrate some of the works of Bear International Art Diploma winners 2016 and 2017  -- this time including Charlie Hunter and Mike Wyeld of Canada/UK and Luis Loras of Spain -- whose works were highly appreciated by the audiences.

   One presentation in person came from John Earhart, chairman of Norway Bears (Den Norske Bamseklubben) focusing on exchanges  between the Norwegians and Bear organizations in Russia, Ukraine and Estonia.  He also commented on  and past and future Norwegian visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg as welcome by the Russians struggling with Putin's ban on "homosexual propaganda." 

      Andrus  K. of the new Belarus Bear group, Lokys, -- in Stockholm for a international journalist conference -- expressed a strong desire for increased LGBT contacts with Nordic Bear organizations and with other colleagues in this the last dictatorship in Eastern Europe.  He also described intensive efforts to educate Belarus journalists working in a very homophobic media to understand the importance of LGBT rights and culture.

                                                       New Nordic Bear Website Spreading Information Thoughout the Nordic zone and beyond

     Joakim J. of the Nordic Bears described their creation of a new Nordic Bear website to provide current information on Bear organizations and events in the Nordic area, eventually to include activities of colleagues in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

   

     Bill Schiller of Bears International explained the organizations aims to promote Bear culture and international solidarity.  The network is open not only to men but also to women, trans, bi-sexuals, immigrants, refugees, HIV positives, differently-abled and queer-minded.  "We want to break the stereotype concept -- that Bears are only interested in beers, parties and sex hidden away in underground pubs -- but to confirm that Bears are also producers of high-quality art, music and films -- and proudly take their place on the rainbow barricades such as at local Prides, Baltic Prides and other LGBT events --  especially important in Eastern Europe where political and religious leaders and a homophobic media insist that gays are only "half men" -- undeserving of human rights or protection from discrimination and violence," Schiller adds.

                                                  Bear culture Events Inspired by Colleagues in Tallinn

    "The promotion of Bear Culture was inspired by the Bearty-Tallinn Bear organization in the Estonian capital," Schiller says, noting that the Estonians sent greetings to Stockholm but were unable to participate in person as they were attending an international Bear festival in Sitges, Spain. At their annual event in Tallinn, the Estonians focused one year on Bear art and photography, the next year on music and song and in 2018 the focus will be on Bear films.

     A message from the Ukranian Bears mentioned that only a few Bears participated in Kiev Pride this year, but that the chief Pride organizer is urging the Bears to increase their  number next year and to march under the Bear flag. The Ukrainian Bears are calling on Bear colleagues in the Nordic region to join them at the event in Kiev next June.

  The two-day Bear cultural event was organized with the ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) Information Secretariat-Stockholm with the support of Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers) and Nordic Bears-Stockholm. It took place at three Stockholm venues -- the PositivHIVa group local (for men having sex with men), the SLM locale and the gay-friendly Stockholm pub, Secret Garden located on the Old Town city island.

More information:  bill@tupilak.org

2nd NORDIC RAINBOW HISTORY & ART MONTH -- October, 2017

PRESS RELEASE                                                                                       August 30, 2017 

2nd NORDIC RAINBOW HISTORY & ART MONTH -- October, 2017      ​ 

     Stockholm -- Preparations continue for this the second annual Nordic LGBT History and Art Month --  again including Nordic capitals and smaller cities on both sides of the Baltic Sea -- such as Umeå, Stockholm, Södertälje, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Vilnius, Jönköping and Rakvere, Estonia.

     The programs include presentations, seminars, art and photography, film screenings, performances, music, poetry and literature readings – part of an event inspired by other LGBT history months in London, Edinburgh, Chicago, Budapest and elsewhere.  The event is being organized by the ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) in collaboration with Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers), Nordic Rainbow Humanists, Bears International and local and national LGBT organizations and festivals.

     The historic Month begins once again in northern Sweden at Umeå Pride on October 1st. The Month also joins the first-ever rainbow film festival, Hartfest, in the northern Estonian city of Rakvere October 6-8, following events in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. 

                                                      British, Danish Swedish Participation

    At the Stockholm and Södertälje stages of the Month, the "guest of honor" and key-note speaker will be Professor Sue Sanders -- who launched the London LGBT History Month in 2005 – and who will also provide seminars on UK rainbow cultural life and the progress of the British months.  Another special guest at the Stockholm and Södertälje events will be Birthe Havmöller of Denmark, creator of the global women's art and photography archive, "Feminine Moments," as well as Swedish film maker, Cecilia Neant-Falk, commenting on her work. Music will be provided in Stockholm by the Swedish duo, “Weed,” and in Södertälje by veteran Swedish singer and song-writer, Jan Hammarlund. 

     The Gothenberg stage is scheduled for October 15-16.   At the Jönköping stage October 21, Njeri Olenkere of RFSL will discribe local LGBT history and culture while Bill Schiller will cover research into Nazi and neo Nazi persecution of LGBT people and the importance of the elderly in the struggle for LGBT culture, identity and history.

     The Reykjavik stage is scheduled for October 24 in the Icelandic capital.  Another British guest at the later days of the Month will be Tony Fenwick of "Schools Out-UK."  At the Vilnius stage in October 25-26, Tatiante Kovacova of the Gay Lithuanian League will describe the history of the organization and LGBT culture in this Baltic state. Also, a presentation from the LGBT Journalists Group from neighboring Belarus. – describing their work challenging the hostile, homophobic media in this the last dictatorship in Eastern Europe.

                                         Humanism, Norwegian LGBT History in Helsinki

    The Copenhagen stage is scheduled for October 28-29.  Among the guest speakers at the Helsinki stage October 30-31 will be Rolf Solheim of Oslo-- describing the rainbow history and culture of Norway and the support for LGBT rights by the international humanist movement. Mikko Misha Autio of the LGBT culture center at Bear Park Café and gay theater group in Helsinki will describe his work and the Finnish rainbow cultural scene.

   Special attention at various stages will be given to the LGBT movements in the eastern edge of the Nordic zone -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- facing fierce intolerance from political and religious leaders, mass media and homophobic hooligans and neo-nazis.  Another aim is the promotion for more LGBT co-operation and exchange between Nordic cities on both sides of the Baltic Sea.

     

      Yet another focus will be on growing co-operation between Bears in the Nordic region and colleagues in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe – including the new Belarus Bear group, Lokys – defying homophobic statements by politicians, religious leaders and the mass media claiming that gays are “weak, feminine and only “half men” -- deserving no human rights and no protection from violent attacks.” 

    Other guest speakers will come from refugee/immigrant communities and embassies in the Nordic zone -- including LGBT activists and culture workers forced to seek asylum in Sweden and elsewhere in the Nordic region.  Others will come from the trans communities, the differently-abled, HIV positives, and the elderly so often ignored in LGBT events.

  

More information:   Bill Schiller of the ILGCN, Tupilak:   bill@tupilak.org     

Curators at the LGBT art/film exhibitions at the Södertälje Art Gallery -- (weeks 41/42):

                           Cecilia Neant-Falk (facebook)   and Sarah Florén   sarah.floren@sodertalje.se

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: All stages of the Nordic Month are without entrance fees open to all interested.   Alas, the 2nd Month has no travel funds although private accommodation may be provided when possible for visiting guests.

    Some Nordic embassies are providing some support for visiting nationals.

Picture:  Golden Viking same-sex emblemsl

ILGCN'S COLIN DE LA MOTTE-SHERMAN DIES

  Berlin -- British-born, German-resident teacher, journalist, LGBT activist and co-founder of the ILGCN, Colin de la Motte-Sherman, has died after a long illness and major surgery in a Berlin hospital at the ago of 79.

        He worked for decades a pioneer with LGBT culture and human rights -- especially with the German branch of Amnesty International -- and delivered seminars on LGBT history, art, music and research into the Nazi and neo nazi persecution of LGBT people in a number of countries outside of Germany -- including Poland, Sweden, Estonia, Croatia and elsewhere. 

    Colin was one of the founders of the ILGCN at an ILGA (International Lesbian & Gay Association) world conference in Paris in 1992 -- a time when the international organization rejected the idea of LGBT culture as an important part of the struggle for rainbow rights and identity.  He was the editor/publisher of the ILGCN's publication, "Erato" for many years before it became a web publication based in Stockholm.

     HIs last visit to Sweden with his seminars took place last year at the Stockholm stage of the 1st Nordic Rainbow History & Art Month - October, 2016.

  A memorial ceremony will take place in Berlin on September, 16.  More information in the next "Erato."

BEARS INTERNATIONAL
CULTURE DAYS
AND TRAVELLING
BEAR ART EXHIBITION
STOCKHOLM

Of the works of the winners of the Bears International Art Diplomas (2016/2017)

• Mike Wyeld and Charlie Hunter, Canada/UK;
• Luke Darko, France;
• Luis Loras, Spain;
• Christophe Jannine-Powelle,
• France/New Zealand

STAGE 1:
Wednesday, September 6, 2017: (19.00)

• SLM Locale (Wollmar Yxkulls gatan 18 T-ban Mariatorget)
• Bears International Travelling Art Exhibit
• Film – art, career, interview with Tom of Finland 

STAGE 2:

Thursday, September 7, 2017: (times, locales to be confirmed)

• Bears International Travelling Art Exhibit 
• Bears Poetry -- Tupilak 
• CD music of "Daddy and the Muscle Academy" -- Finland
• Bear oral and written presentations: 
• "Bear Art in the Making" -- report from Charlie Hunter, Canada/UK 
• "Icelandic Bears -- report from Frosti Jonsson, Bears-on-Ice
• "Why Do We Need Bears on the Barricades...?" -- Bill Schiller, Bears International 
• "Bears Surviving in a Dictatorship" -- report from Lokys-Bears of Belarus
• "Co-operation with Bears in Eastern Europe" -- report from John Earhart, Bamse-Norway
• "Bear Culture – pioneers in Estonia -- report from Alvar  Ameljushenko, Bearty-Tallinn
• "Bears in the East" -- report from Ukrainian Bears, (Eastern partner with Bears International) 
• “The Magic and Power of Leather” – Jan Kopriwa, Läderverkstad, Stockholm 
• Bear video clips: "Bears on Ice" -- Reykjavik, “Bearserk"—Copenhagen, "Land of the Midnight Fun" -- Helsinki 

Supported by Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers),
Nordic Rainbow Network, Viking Bears-Sweden 

Drawing by Luis Loras

​Photo of Touko Laasksonen
(Tom of Finland)

ILGCN RAINBOW CULTURE CONFERENCE TAKES PLACE IN BUDAPEST 

Press release from the ILGCN Information Secretariat:  July 5, 2017

Budapest --  Seminars on LGBT culture and history, films, music, poetry, art and photography were part of the ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) international cultural conference -- July 3-4, 2017 part of this year-s Budapest Pride.

Also discussions on the role of "Bears on the Barricades," the role of trans persons in rainbow history and culture, immigrants/refugee contributions to LGBT culture, the importance of  rainbow humanists and the anti-fascist movement on the rainbow barricades -- especially in nations facing growing threats from violent neo-nazis, intolerant politicans, negative media and homophobic religious leaders.  Discussions also covered research in the Nazi and neo Nazi persecution of homosexuals -- followed 10 years after the liberation of Auschwitz by Franco's Tefía concentration camp in Spain, and the growing number of LGBT monuments paying tribute to LGBT people arrested, imprisoned, and murdered over the millinnems.

Art and photography illustrated the works of colleagues from Poland, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Finland and elsewhere.  Films included the Canadian "Beyond Pride" covering prides in Vancouver, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Russia and the British drama "Unchechen" displaying the recent wave of persecution and violance against gays in the Chechnyan republic of Russia. 

Participants requested another such conference in the Hungarian capital next year.  The 2nd stage of this year's conference is planned for one of the 14 Nordic cities of the 2nd Nordic Rainbow History & Art Month this October -- an event inspired by the LGBT history months taking place in London for over a decade and the LGBT history month in Budapest.

The Budapest conference was also supported by Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers), European Rainbow Humanists and Bears International.

Some of the Budapest conference participants from Canada, Hungary and Sweden

www.ilgcn.tupilak.org     bill@tupilak.org

PRESS RELEASE

Stockholm May 18, 2017

TUPILAK, ILGCN HONOR IDAHOT DAY IN STOCKHOLM

Stockholm -- Presentations, poetry, art, and film screenings were part of the Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers) and the ILGCN (rainbow culture international) -arranged event at the Old Town gay-friendly pub Secret Garden marked May 17 as the international day against homophobia and transphobia.

Presentations included program plans from the Södertälje Art Hall producer Sarah Florén for the October 13-14 part of the 2nd Nordic Rainbow History & Art Month and Bill Schiller on the other 12 Nordic  cities in the October Month -- ranging from Reykjavik to Vilnius.

Andrea Sjöfelt presented the outslines of her seminar "scientific rascism in the care system yesterday and today for transgender people"  to be deliverind in full in Stockholm and Södertälje during the Nordic Month.

Sccreened films included "Komet", by Victor LIndgren about LGBT refugees coming to Sweden and "Stockholm Daybreak" by Elin Övergaard about two young gays with dawn hangovers slowly waking up to their true sexual orientation.

The Stockholm event also expressed special greetings to colleagues in the northern Swedish city of Umeå -- also marking this as IDAHOT Day and screening the film "Komet" with the prescence of the film director participating in a panel discussion..

Special salutes were made to colleagues in the dictatorships of Belarus and Chechnya.

Veteran Swedish  singer, musican and song writer Jan Hammarlund performed and Tupilak's Tommy Åberg read his poetry.

ILGCN awards announced included the "Roger Casement" 2017 dipoma for journalism (named after the human rights pioneering homosexual executed by the British 101 years ago) going to the Russian LGBT Network reporting on the persecution and murder of Chechnyan gays, Russian journalist Elena Milasjina of Novaja Gazeta, facing death threats for reporting on the situation in Chechnya. and Ulf Andersson, editor of Sweden's Amnesty Press.

The ILGCN "Rainbow Warrior" 2017 was announced , going for the first time posthumously to French policeman, Xavier Jugelé, a popular gay activist murdered in a recent terrorist attack in Paris.

ILGCN film awards for the coming year went to the U.S/Russian documentary, "Campaign of Hate," the annual LGBT film festival in St. Petersburg "Side by Side" and the British short-film drama "Unchechnen" about the violent mistreatment of gays in Chena.

Also, a call for a pink dollar boycott of tourism and investment in Indonesia -- with the news of the sentencing of two young gays to 85 cane lashings -- sentenced on IDAHTO day as pointed out in the international news media.

A special IDAHOT salute was made to the young- 2-years-old Ukrainina Bears, organizing international Bear events during the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, helping challenge the stereotypes often describing gays as "half" men in the Eastern European media, political and religious circles -- undesering of human rights.

And a Swedish skål was made to American whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, released on IDAHOT Day after 7 years in prison.

Also supporting the Stockholm event:  Bears International and Nordic Rainbow Humanists.

Photos​ by Joakim of Sweden.

NO CULTURAL EXCHANGE, NO PINK TOURIST OR INVESTMENT DOLLARS TO INDONESIA

On this May 17, 2017 IDAHOT Day, two slender gay men in their 20’s in Indonesia have been found guilty of having gay sex and have been sentenced to prison and 85 cane lashes each.  Such a high number of flesh-cutting lashes can be a death sentence even for strong, muscular men let alone frail youngsters.

The BBC tv and Al Jazeera reports showing the men taken into a police bus also reported that the young men wept when hearing the verdict.  The reports also emphasized that the sentence came on the world day against homophobia.

      

The ILGCN, Tupilak, Nordic Rainbow Humanists and Bears International not only send a loud protest – but also call for a global rainbow cultural, tourist and investment boycott of Indonesia -- a nation spending huge amounts of money daily on BBC television advertising in hopes of attracting more foreign investments and foreign tourists to Indonesia.

      

The tourist adds display a harmonious people, beautiful scenery, and much food – to the song of the long-deceased American musician, Louis Armstrong, singing about "green trees and red roses, too...in a wonderful world.”

We propose that this rainbow boycott begins on this IDAHOT Day, May 17, 2017.

Bill Schiller, Stockholm