Report on LGBT presence at the European Social Forum

Florence, 2002

Sérgio Vitorino

 

The list of organizations you will find below (some of which are federations of associations) is the result of putting together the list of signatures to the European appeal (some of which worked on Ilga Europe's conference in Lisbon) with other contacts of individuals and organizations made by us in Florence, around the lgbt conferences. Not all of these contacts are subscribers to the manifesto, but most of them are. All of them demonstrated their interest in the ESF and have adopted anti-neoliberalism positions, whether by signing our manifesto or through other intiatives linked with Florence, so they are the first potential lgbt activists interested in a eventual lgbt European network that we can build. The list in nor closed nor complete.

 

We already had a reasonable number of signatures of the appeal when we left to Florence. There, on the second day, we had a first lgbt meeting with Pascale, Jeremie, moi, Paulo Vieira, two spanish groups, and members of the Italian groups IREOS and Azione Gay e Lesbica. Paulo had already been, in the first day, at the preparatory meeting of the Social Movements Assembly, that took place the day after the end of the ESF and gathered 10 thousand people. There, Paulo proposed a structural change to the proposed text for the agenda of the European social movements: it had 4 priorities (War, Neo-liberalism, Racism and I'm missing one), but he added the proposal of a fifth, on patriarchy.

 

Anyway, in that first meeting we shifted the center of our interventions from the appeal to the need of gathering in an European network all the lgbt groups involved with the appeal/with Florence/with anti-capitalist movements. That meeting also helped us to plan the lgbt march at the demonstration planned for the end of the ESF. We also, in this meeting, elected a comission - Paulo, Pascale and Cristian from the Italian Antagonismo Gay - to write the "patriarchy paragraph", that was finally included in the text of the Social Movements Assembly.

 

Several lgbt initiatives took place during the ESF, namely the workshop organized by Azione (on lgbts and neo-liberalism). Also ArciLesbica's seminar, where I spoke along with Italian speakers (Titti De Simone, who did not go; Liana Borghi on sexual rigths and diversity culture; Porpora Marcasciano on transgender or degenerate; Gigi Malaroda; Roberta Padovano: Pim Fortuyn, a case? and Raymonde Gérard of the French CNL on the French movement). My intervention was on queer anti-capitalism and insisted a lot on the need for the so-called lgbt European network, and it seems to have provoked some response. And also the lgbt conference we managed to impose in Barcelona's meeting, where the speakers were Pascale (Moral and symbolic order); Paulo (LGBTs and neo-liberalism); a Greek militant; Ana Cristina Santos (from Portugal, to speak on lgbt parenthood); Juana Ramos (from Transexualia, Madrid, we met her at ILGA's conference, on transgenderism); and the president of ArciLesbica on lesbian struggle. In general terms, the conferences were high quality and were visible, even if that is relative in an event that had dozens of them each day at the same time. They were also crowded with people, even if not so much as more "consensual" events on other themes.

 

Our participation in the demonstration was as visible as something can be in a demonstration of almost a million people. We had a big banner in front of us - saying in Italian Gays, Lesbians, Trans against the war - and we managed to sing lgbt words throughout all the march. When the demonstration started - it spontaneously started 3 hours ahead of schedule because people had no more place to stand - we were about 500, and we ended up with about 2000 people. We had big pink triangles to make us visible, because the rainbow flags were too similar to the flags adopted by the Italian pacifists: in fact they were the same, except theirs had "Pace" written in white. Several Italian organizations had their own flags and banners and it went very well, we were very aplauded, as was the rest of the demonstration.

 

What is now to be done with all the contacts gathered? Well, the only ones who have discussed this is those of us who were present there, and we do need a collective discussion on what can be done. These contacts can be very useful for they represent, even if the list can grow, the "radical" side of the lgbt European movements, at least they define as anti-capitalist, have a political conscience beyond the lgbt issues and relate themes. But, for the moment, I find important to keep the link with these groups and persons, so Pascale has proposed something I find promising: getting a webpage where we would publish Florence's interventions (I have almost all and the contacts to ask the missing ones), the manifestos and the list of organizations and contacts. This webpage would be the single structure of this network for now, but it could potentiate the discussion on the next ESF and the G8 encounter in France (June), make links to the lgbt groups working around the WSF (below you'll also find the actual adress of Alexandre Boer, our comrade is responsable for the lgbt space in the youth camp of the WSF) and even discuss an lgbt self-agenda. This page will be put up by Pascale and will operate in France, but it can be managed from other European countries. As soon as Pascale gives me the green light, I will send a general mail in several languages to all of these groups orientating them to this webpage and sharing the contacts with everybody.

 

GERMANY:

-           Eike and Sandra (Germany) - Eisan8@aol.com (met them in the seminars in Florence)

-           Philipp Braun - PhilippB@-online.de (a german contact from ILGA's conference, interested on the appeal)

-           Ruth - zuala.luschnat@snafu.de (met her in the seminars in Florence)

 

ITALY:

-           Assoziazione Ireos (Italy) ˆ mirco.z@libero.it; info@ireos.org (subscribed manifest)

-           ARCI LESBICA (Italy) ˆ Cristina - zabia@tiscali.it (subscribed manifest) -    Centro Studi GayLesbicoTransQueer (Italy) (subscribed manifest) -            GLO ˆ Gruppo de Liberazione Omosessuale (Milano ˆ Italy) (subscribed manifest)

-           Gruppo di Lavvoro www.gayroma.it (Italy) - maurocioffari@tiscali.it (subscribed manifest)

-           MIT ˆ Movimento Identitá Transessuale (Italy) ˆ Porpora Marcasciano: mit.bo@tin.it; mit-bo@iperbole.bologna.it; www.mit-italia.it;(subscribed manifest)

-           MOS ˆ Movimento Omosessuale Sardo (Italy) (subscribed manifest) -         Open Mind (Catania ˆ Italy) (subscribed manifest) -           Planeta Urano ˆ Arci Gay/ Arci Lesbica (Verona ˆ Italy) (subscribed manifest)

-           Queering Sapienza (Italy)(subscribed manifest) -   Antagonismo Gay - cristian.loiacono@tin.it; Marco: mgeremia@libero.it; Marco: pujon@freemail.it; agaybologna@ecn.org; www.ecn.org/agaybologna (subscribed manifest)

-           Azione Gay e Lesbica - info@azionegayelesbica.it; www.azionegayelesbica.it; Riccardo Bettini: ricbet@inwind.it; Marco Ravaioli: marco_rava@hotmail.com (did not subscribe manifest but supports network)

-           comog@libero.it (someone, I don't remember) -    Roberta Padovano (Italia) - lija@libero.it (one of the most interesting intervention in my seminar, on Pym Fortuyn and islamophobia) -        Piergiorgio - iosto2001@yahoo.it (italien activist) - Gigi ˆ gigi_online@libero.it (gigi_online@libero.it) (he is linked to an italien group, from Bologna, Mauricio)

 

SPAIN:

-           Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays y Transexuales (FELGT ˆ Spain) - felg@ctv.es; miquelfernandez@ctv.es (subscribed manifest) -        Bolobolo ˆ Colectivo de Lesbianas y Gays de Toledo (Spain)(subscribed manifest)

-           Transexualia (Spain) ˆ Juana Ramos: juanaramo@eresmas.com; transexualia@nodo.50.org(subscribed manifest) -   HEGOAK ˆ (Basque Country) - (subscribed manifest) -         COGAM (Madrid ˆ Spain) ˆ Boti Rodrigo: cogam@ctv.es; www.cogam.org (subscribed manifest)

-           A.L.V.A.S - Asociacion por la Libertad de Vida Afectivo Sexual (Albacete/ Spain) - alvas@ono.com (subscribed manifest) -    Area Por La Libertad de Expresion Afectivo-Sexual de Izquierda Unida - Spain - secretaria.organizacion@izquierda-unida.es(subscribed manifest) -        OJALÁ (Málaga-España) Asociación de Gays, Lesbianas y Transexuales de Málaga - anjeltxo@hotmail.com(subscribed manifest) -          Group de Lesbianes Feministes de Barcelona - (met them in Florence, interested in network)

-           Collectivo Lambda Valencia ˆ Jose Cabucholia: manumoca@yahoo.es (another contact from Florence, also present in our meetings there) -    Fundación Triángulo por la Igualdad social de gais y lesbianas (Spain) - paco_pl@teleline.es (subscribed manifest)

 

PORTUGAL:

-           Clube Safo (Portugal)(subscribed manifest) -        Coisa do Género (Portugal)(subscribed manifest) -            Grupo de Trabalho Homossexual do PSR (Portugal) - sergiovitorino@netcabo.pt (subscribed manifest) - Grupo Oeste Gay (Portugal)(subscribed manifest) -           Não Te Prives ˆ Grupo de Defesa dos Direitos Sexuais (Portugal) - naoteprives@yahoo.com (subscribed manifest) -          Nós ˆ Movimento Pela Liberdade Sexual (Portugal) (subscribed manifest) - Opus Gay (Portugal) - anser@netcabo.pt (subscribed manifest) -            PortugalGay.PT (Portugal)(subscribed manifest) - ILGA-PORTUGAL(subscribed manifest)

 

EAST:

-           ISKORAK (Croatia) ˆ Dorino Manzin - dmanzin@iskorak.org www.iskorak.org (subscribed manifest)

-           Drustvo prijateljev Legebtire ˆ (Ljubljana, Slovenia)-(subscribed manifest)

-           Lesbian group KONTRA (Zagreb, Croatia) ˆ Jelena Postic: jelena_post@yahoo.com (subscribed manifest) -  Lesbian group SKUC-LL (Slovenia) (subscribed manifest) Adress: Metelkova 6

SI-1000 Ljubljana

Slovenia

Tel. +386.1.430.35.35; Fax +386.1.232.91.85; Email sekcijaskuc@mail.ljudmila.org ;

www.ljudmila.org/lesbo

 

FRANCE :

-           UEEH ˆ Université Euromediterrané des Homossexualités - ueeh@wanadoo.fr (did not subscribe, it appears because Jeremie was in the meetings as a member of the ueeh)

-           Mix Cité (France) ˆ Laurence, Mix-Cité Paris Ltordorombaut@aol.com (subscribed manifest)

-           Moove ! (France ˆ Lyon) (subscribed manifest) -    Commission Nationale des Homosexualités (CNH) de la LCR (France) (subscribed manifest)

-           Interassociative lesbienne, gai, bi et trans (France)- Pascale Berthault : pasca.berto@wanadoo.fr (did not subscribe manifest, Pascale thougth that after Florence she would have better conditions to do so, let's see...)

 

WSF:

www.forumsocialmundial.org.br

alexboer.ez@terra.com.br - Alexandre Boer