Workshop Sessions

TransGender Europe and ILGA-Europe are working effectively to combat discrimination and structural inequalities that transgender people experience on a regular basis. Throughout 2009 they are organising a number of joint activities to raise awareness and send a message that transgender people will not settle for anything less than equal rights. This workshop shall provide an overview of how these organisations work out their partnership as equals in the struggle for transgender people’s rights and how similar partnerships can be developed/strengthened at national and regional level.

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LGBT human rights and religious opposition

Around the world, the leading opponents of LGBT human rights often rely on religious beliefs, doctrines or texts. Advocates of equality for LGBT persons face the dual challenge of persuading religious communities to change their beliefs and doctrines, and the interpretation of their texts, while reminding public officials that international human rights law prohibits the use of the law to impose the majority's religious beliefs on those
who dissent for any reason. The first speaker will address the particular challenge faced by LGBT persons in Muslim-majority countries, and within Muslim communities in other countries. The second speaker will consider where human rights law should draw the line when requiring accommodation of religious beliefs, especially if accommodation would permit discrimination against LGBT persons.

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Over recent years, the levels of violence against LBT women are on the increase in many countries, with as most recent examples the two extreme violent attacks on a lesbian women and a transgender woman in East Africa. Hivos supports activities and initiatives to stop this violence. In this workshop good practices like the 777-campaign in South Africa will be presented, after which panelists will discuss with the audience on possible next steps -- what needs to be done to make LBT women feel safe?

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The question of sexuality has not received much attention in migration studies, and issues of migration to a large extent have been marginalised in the field of sexuality research. And conditions for LGBT persons in relation to migration have only to a limited extent been on the agenda of LGBT NGOs or human rights organisations or institutions. This workshop addresses conditions for LGBT persons seeking asylum. The presentation particularly addresses and questions the following: Issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in relation to international and national asylum law and legal practice; Conditions for LGBT persons in various phases of asylum application procedures; The practice of immigration authorities when dealing with LGBT asylum seekers and LGBT issues - and possible practices of LGBT NGOs and human rights institutions; Conditions for LGBT persons in asylum centers. The study is based on a study on conditions for LGBT persons seeking asylum in Denmark. The Danish asylum system is thus the starting point for the presentation.

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The workshop will be consisting of the following 3 sessions: 1. Background: Overview of transgender history in South Africa, informing the current lived experiences. The first session will outline to participants the various challenges in activism experienced by South African trans people. 2. Tradition meets transgender: During this very dynamic session participants will learn how tradition meets transgender meets activism. "My parents always used my Ancestors as the justifying reason for my male behaviour. I personally think that even if my Ancestors did not choose to call me I was still going to be a transgender person because transgender has to do with hormone. 3. Art and media as activism tools: In this session we will share the art workshops and methods Gender DynamiX used, not only as activism & communication tools but also in empowering people in preparation in their personal lives.

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This workshop involves activists from across Europe, sharing ideas and learning from each other for the development of new strategies. These strategies may be either internal to the organization to improve effectiveness, or external campaigning strategies to bring about social change. The following themes may be addressed: 1. Internal organizational themes; generational change, involving younger activists in decision making; reaching out beyond the activists to the broader LGBT community; reaching out to LGBT with a migrant background. 2. External strategies; going-public strategies versus insider lobbying; position-taking and compromising with the government; institutionalizing cross-border cooperation; cooperation and activism in the EU.

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IGLYO, the International LGBTQ Youth and Student Organisation, is going to celebrate its 25th anniversary by hosting the international conference “This is who I am” in Amsterdam from the 20-24 July 2009. LGBTQ movements have often been initiated by young people who want to change their discriminatory societies .
Youth activists worldwide have a huge potential create positive change to influence their lives but they face problems, barriers and challenges in their work. Whilst these are often context specific, we also have examples of international similarities. However, there is a significant gap in the exchange of best practice for LGBTQ youth work and empowerment. An output of the Amsterdam Conference will be a catalogue of best practices for young LGBTQ activists on how to approach and work with human rights for LGBTQ young people worldwide, built on the existing Yogyakarta Principles.

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Lesbians worldwide are a force which should not be underestimated. Be it in buying force, as employees or in developing own businesses. But what exact is it that makes us a force? Are we fully aware of this fact and what do we do with it? It is time to address such topics: to present facts and figures, to create awareness, to network on an international level.

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There are many pluses for today's awareness of our growing global niche. But how do we respond to the increasing LGBT focused marketing campaigns? Is there a general rule that applies when targeting our community? Among the main topics of this intriguing and most valuable workshop, we will address the differences from country to country and why we are no longer isolated.

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Trade unions exist to defend workers rights and promote equality. LGBT people face prejudice and discrimination at work and have a proud history of organising. This ought to be the perfect fit. Yet more than 10 years after the first Workers Out! conference, there are still many countries where the LGBT community would not think of looking to trade unions for support and unions may not have given a thought to LGBT workers rights. This is changing and the objective of this workshop is to hasten the change. We will present our experiences from three very different situations - Poland, Nigeria and the UK - where the partnership is either well established or at its beginning. We will give participants practical guidance on working with trade unions for LGBT workers rights: existing labour movement policies, key bargaining points on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, how to navigate trade union structure and top organizing tips. We will share resources from our own work and invite discussion of how to tailor these to participants' own situations.

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The workshop deals with two subjects. First, union workers and others tell about the developments and activities at the workplace. Apart from that, the Minister of Culture, Education and Emancipation recently decided to subsidise a three year project the FNV (Dutch Trade Union Confederation) applied for, together with the Company Pride Platform. This allows FNV and CPP to organise special activities about diversity and LGBT aspects at the workplace. The workshop will contain both presentations and a Q and A session. We hope to inspire the participants and get inspiration for the near future.

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1. Finding online resources for LGBT organizations: Queer Peace International researches and organizes helpful online resources that are essential for building capacity in LGBT organizations. Workshop facilitation skills, board development, funding support, democratic leadership, conflict-resolution are examples of useful skills that LGBT organizers can use to build and strengthen their activism and outreach. This workshop will present an overview of these helpful web sources that are freely available to LGBT people worldwide.
2. Finding our community through travel and research: GlobalGayz.com is a free travel/culture website survey of LGBT activists and non-activists regarding their personal lives and their human-rights and health-advocacy work, ranging from political and legal victory to violence and murder. The owner of GlobalGayz will present an overview of the site’s charitable mission and its broad spectrum of LGBT issues in 185 countries.

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“Hello My Name is Lesbian” is the first Danish-produced documentary to show modern lesbian lifestyle and culture in all its diversity as it is lived in one of the most sexually liberated countries in the world. The film is set against historic footage from the last five decades’ dynamic mosaic of music and visuals. With a relieving self-irony, women aged 19 to 84, share thoughts on sex, loneliness, hobbies, dreams, family gatherings, parental roles, night life and careers: Every facet of the lives we lead, viewed through the eyes of women who have chosen identities departing from the norm.

Directed by Minna Grooss & Iben Haahr Andersen; produced by Gitte Randløv. Funded with support from The Danish Film Institute and OAK Foundation. 2009 Danish Doc Production for DR TV (52 min.)

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The HIV/AIDS issue is, of course, also relevant to the LGBTQ communities in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). It is often difficult, though, to deal with HIV/AIDS in this region because of the religious and cultural taboos put upon homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases. On the other hand, the fight against HIV/AIDS has in some cases proved to be an area that offers the possibility to establish some kind of contact or even cooperation between LGBTQ communities and authorities, who are interested in promoting public health and stop epidemics. In this workshop, we will discuss the problems specific to the MENA region in connection with HIV/AIDS as well as the strategic use of this issue as a way of establishing relations with the authorities.

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Through their work, many LGBT activists have had traumatizing experiences, especially if they live and work in homophobic societies. Working as an openly LGBT activist exposes them to prejudices and often they are attacked for their work or their identity. Additionally, many activists know much more about homophobic attacks and discrimination on their communities than others; and are more aware of it in every day life. Activist work often takes up a lot of time and energy. Its very nature creates pressure – working without fixed hours, managing a lot of projects at the same time, often without secured funding and in harsh societal conditions. It is important for us as activists to recognize these issues, and recognize how they affect our well-being. Stress does not only affect our psychosocial health, but it transcends into everyday life and
affects our relationships with other people, our work capacity, and our body as well. The workshop will highlight issues of psychosocial health in activism, provide a platform to recognize and articulate these issues and introduce strategies to deal with them.

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Is education about LGBT issues the same thing all over the world? What are the common issues in education of the general public, of teachers, journalists, police officers and professionals in other sectors? How can we work together to identify, enhance and share good practices? How do we combine transnational work with concrete local action? This workshop aims to inform about the education strategies and activities of the Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE) in 6 continents. It will inspire the participants to think about the opportunities to start educational projects and to develop and implement these in collaboration with the international learning community GALE. Presenters from 6 continents, who are all active in the transnational board of GALE or in regional strategy groups and as allied partners, will give a short overview of their local projects and how they see the added value of collaborating on these in the global context of GALE. They will show how storytelling has become the backbone of education activities and how a common view of what education about LGBT issues is and how it can be worked out into very concrete projects that are meaningful to people who are disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation or sexual identity.

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Discrimination against LGBT people is everywhere! Especially in the sports world there are some niches where homophobia can hide easily respectively where homophobia is "part of the game" e.g. in football (where the referee or the opposing team is called gay). Without the help and support of the straight world it is impossible to change attitudes and prejudice of players, coaches and officials and to secure the inclusion of everybody. Since the founding of the EGLSF in 1989 the organisation is committed to build and support queer and straight sport alliances as much as possible. This workshop gives examples for successful alliances in Germany, Norway and the Netherlands.

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The workshop will present a different side of the LGBT achievements in South Africa and California as well the misconceptions concerning the same sex families in the perspective of recent history. By questioning if the achievement of the right to marry is a victory in the LGBT rights struggle, Melanie Judge will present a critical reflection on the historic process that culminated in the passing of the Civil Union Act in South Africa in 2006, making it the first country on the African continent to legalize marriage between people of the same sex. Ellen Diamantouli will show how contemporary ways of debating and acting upon LGBT families are informed by normalizing ideals of heteronormative gender and sexuality. By demonstrating that a child's upbringing in a family without a parent of each sex has not always been constituted as problematic, Ellen will point to some of the current challenges facing gay and lesbian parents. Paul Reis will present how, following the California's Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex marriages in the state in May 15, 2008, North American and European media have presented this issue in the public arena, identifying the main characteristics of this coverage, and highlighting differences and similarities.

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Being Gay with delay means realizing our true sexuality at a mature age, being at least past the age of 30, 40 and even 50, maybe married, often having children, education and a large often mostly heterosexual – social network. When the first hilarity around coming out is over, comes the aftermath: Our role as a mother/father, sister/brother, daughter/son or friend, is suddenly turned around and has to be redefined, accepted and understood by ourselves and by everyone around us. After the turmoil of our late coming out, we have to deal with a large number of new families: Some of us continue married life, living out our new love in the hidden. Others come out completely to both the close family and more distant relations. Yet others live in a comfortable mix between these two. None of us can avoid the task of integrating new families within same-sex relations or marriages, or swallowing the lack of acceptance from teenage children, parents and exes.
Join this workshop for a discussion about challenges and possibilities in being gay with delay. Find new and innovative relations in family constructions, with gay partners and as a member of the gay community.

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Bisexual people have not always found a welcoming home in lesbian and gay dominated queer communities. Bisexuals tend to have a low level of visibility in queer communities, and this is reflected in many of the social change priorities articulated in queer activism. Yet bisexuals have always been part of queer communities, and bisexual activists have frequently been prominent in agitating for sexual and social liberation. What
contributions do bisexuals make? How can our communities greater value diversity in sexual identity and practices? How can we forge stronger solidarity across difference? What space can bisexuals claim? This highly participatory workshop will be a gathering space for bisexuals and their allies at the conference. This workshop is inclusive of issues relevant to all queer identities which are non-heterosexual and non- homosexual. The term bisexual is used for the sake of easy understanding, but is not meant to imply that other terms (queer, poly etc) are not legitimate, nor that there are only two genders or biological sexes.

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