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