The Conference of Civil Organizations in Support of LGBT Movement Took Place in Moscow
23/10/2008
Submitted by
Russian LGBT Network
From October 17 to 19, the National Conference of Civil Organizations in Support of LGBT Movement took place in Moscow.
The Conference was attended by over 100 participants from the following 28 cities (26 regions): Tyumen, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Omsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Voronezh, Petrozavodsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Zheleznogorsk, Abakan, Arkhangelsk, Sochi, Chelyabinsk, Volgograd, Naberezhnye Chelny, Kazan, Pskov, Yekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Orel, Orenburg, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Khabarovsk, and Perm.
DAY ONE
On Friday, October 17, at the opening of the Conference, the participants were addressed with greetings by the Executive Director of the Russian LGBT Network, Igor Petrov, the Executive Director of the MHG, Nina Tagankina, the representative of the Swedish Helsinki Committee (SHC) Peter Öholm, and the Program Director of ILGA-Europe, Maxim Anmegikyan.
The greetings were followed by presentations by Dmitry Filippov (Project LaSky), Ruslan Porshnev (Project Antidogma), and Igor Petrov on “Sexual and Gender Minorities in Russia: Current Situation and Perspectives for Emancipation.”
Included in the presentations were the results of the monitoring of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Russia, and examinations of internal problems of the LGBT community and stigmatization of LGBT in the sphere of health care.
Igor Semenovich Kohn, a well-known scientist, who took up the stage to share his vision of the tasks facing the LGBT Movement in Russia, was warmly greeted by the participants. Igor Semenovich noted especially that the LGBT movement is not a political force, but rather operates in the context of democratic transformations.
Under the present political situation, the LGBT activists can only count on their own strengths. “The drowning man’s fate is in his own hands,” said Kohn in the words of a Russian proverb. “That’s the formula of life in Russia.”
Kohn singled out homosexual and transgender healthcare to be one of priority tasks for the Movement. In his opinion, if the HIV epidemic keeps developing with the same rate as today, in 20 years from now there will be no one to care for. Russia’s problem is that the concept of “sexual education” itself is lacking.
Igor Kohn also noted the importance for the LGBT activists to establish contacts with regional and federal authorities, as well as public organizations.
The second possible direction of work, according to Kohn, is protection of rights. It is necessary to carry out regional monitoring of violation of rights due to sexual orientation or gender identity. It is also important to study public opinion, involving professional sociologists.
After the break, the project of “The Strategy for Development of the LGBT Movement” was presented. The project’s development began in January 2008 at a round table between human rights advocates and LGBT activists. Afterwards, the document was discussed throughout the regions of Russia and over the internet. As a result of these discussions, the document was modified and differed significantly from the original version; it underwent some fundamental additions and modifications.
Individual sections of the document were presented by Valery Sozaev (LGBT Movement and the Society), Maria Sabunaeva (LGBT Movement and the Internal Problems of the LGBT Community), and Igor Petrov (LGBT Movement and the State). The last day of the Conference, the participants adopted the Strategy to be the basis, and entrusted the Council of the Russian LGBT Network to finalize it, taking into account the suggested modifications, and to publish it in the course of one month.
After an open discussion, a series of regional organizations and groups were presented: LaSky, LaSky-Deaf, Liga (Volgograd), Coming Out (St. Petersburg), Antidogma and a group of activists from Chelyabinsk, The Wings (St. Petersburg), Krug-Kareliya and the Project PK (Petrozavodsk), Apogei (Tomsk), The Rainbow House (Tyumen), LGBT-Rights (Moscow), Favorit-Pulsar (Omsk), Rakurs (Arkhangelsk), and SDG (Krasnoyarsk). The Conference participants found these presentations to be very useful, since one of the problems of today’s LGBT movement is informational disunity – the activists in one region of the country are not aware of what’s going on in other regions.
DAY TWO
On Saturday, October 18, the Conference started with meetings of the following work groups: “Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the LGBT Community,” “Tolerant Society: Educational Projects,” “Overcoming Inner Homophobia,” “Mobilization of the LGBT Community and the Development of Regional LGBT Organizations,” “Gay and Lesbian Families and Parenthood,” and “Internet Projects.” As a result of the discussions, each work group formulated concepts for concrete projects, which would be brought to life by joint efforts.
A round table on “Protection of Rights and Rightful Interests of the LGBT Community: Position of the Human Rights Advocates” was held in the second half of the day. The speakers, representatives of well-known human rights organizations such as the MHG, the Fund Liberal Mission, YHRM, Human Rights Center of Kazan, the Association AGORA, the Swedish Helsinki Committee, and SIDA (Sweden), presented their view of the problem of discrimination of LGBT.
One of the main difficulties of participation by human rights advocates in protection of LGBT rights is the conflict between principles of the human rights movement and the personal beliefs of certain human rights advocates, which they find difficult to overcome. However, all the presenters underlined their readiness to work with the LGBT community and urged it to be more open and active. In particular, Nina Tagankina used the project of monitoring, carried out by the MHG jointly with the Russian LGBT Network, as an example of productive collaboration. Up until 2007, the MHG had no concrete information about the discrimination of LGBT. Today, however, a corresponding section is included in the annual report on “Human Rights in Russia.”
At the conclusion of the round table, Igor Petrov noted that the joint work between the LGBT activists and the human rights advocates will be built around two main principles: collaboration and independence. In his opinion, LGBT activists should treat those human rights advocates who would help only under the condition of anonymity with understanding.
DAY THREE
During the seminars of Sunday, October 19, the participants of the Conference discussed the following topics: “Fundamentals of Psychological Support Service,” “Working with Volunteers,” “Interaction between LGBT Organizations and the Mass Media and the Society,” and “Phone Support Service in the Regions.”
The seminars were followed by an organizational conference of the Russian LGBT Network, with around 70 participants. As the outcome of the conference, a decision was adopted to transform the Russian LGBT Network into an Interregional Public Movement “Russian LGBT Network.” The Constitution was passed and the governing and auditing bodies elected. Igor Petrov was elected Chairman of the Movement, while Maria Sabunaeva, Dmitry Filippov, Nadezhda Knyazeva, Valery Sozaev, Lilia Bostanova, Ruslan Zuev, Nina Tagankina, Maxim Gubin, and Alexandr Zhdanov were elected Members of the Council.
The end of the day concluded with a Conference recap.
The Conference was held with financial support of the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the ILGA-Europe.
The Conference was attended by over 100 participants from the following 28 cities (26 regions): Tyumen, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Omsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Voronezh, Petrozavodsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Zheleznogorsk, Abakan, Arkhangelsk, Sochi, Chelyabinsk, Volgograd, Naberezhnye Chelny, Kazan, Pskov, Yekaterinburg, Yaroslavl, Orel, Orenburg, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Khabarovsk, and Perm.
DAY ONE
On Friday, October 17, at the opening of the Conference, the participants were addressed with greetings by the Executive Director of the Russian LGBT Network, Igor Petrov, the Executive Director of the MHG, Nina Tagankina, the representative of the Swedish Helsinki Committee (SHC) Peter Öholm, and the Program Director of ILGA-Europe, Maxim Anmegikyan.
The greetings were followed by presentations by Dmitry Filippov (Project LaSky), Ruslan Porshnev (Project Antidogma), and Igor Petrov on “Sexual and Gender Minorities in Russia: Current Situation and Perspectives for Emancipation.”
Included in the presentations were the results of the monitoring of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Russia, and examinations of internal problems of the LGBT community and stigmatization of LGBT in the sphere of health care.
Igor Semenovich Kohn, a well-known scientist, who took up the stage to share his vision of the tasks facing the LGBT Movement in Russia, was warmly greeted by the participants. Igor Semenovich noted especially that the LGBT movement is not a political force, but rather operates in the context of democratic transformations.
Under the present political situation, the LGBT activists can only count on their own strengths. “The drowning man’s fate is in his own hands,” said Kohn in the words of a Russian proverb. “That’s the formula of life in Russia.”
Kohn singled out homosexual and transgender healthcare to be one of priority tasks for the Movement. In his opinion, if the HIV epidemic keeps developing with the same rate as today, in 20 years from now there will be no one to care for. Russia’s problem is that the concept of “sexual education” itself is lacking.
Igor Kohn also noted the importance for the LGBT activists to establish contacts with regional and federal authorities, as well as public organizations.
The second possible direction of work, according to Kohn, is protection of rights. It is necessary to carry out regional monitoring of violation of rights due to sexual orientation or gender identity. It is also important to study public opinion, involving professional sociologists.
After the break, the project of “The Strategy for Development of the LGBT Movement” was presented. The project’s development began in January 2008 at a round table between human rights advocates and LGBT activists. Afterwards, the document was discussed throughout the regions of Russia and over the internet. As a result of these discussions, the document was modified and differed significantly from the original version; it underwent some fundamental additions and modifications.
Individual sections of the document were presented by Valery Sozaev (LGBT Movement and the Society), Maria Sabunaeva (LGBT Movement and the Internal Problems of the LGBT Community), and Igor Petrov (LGBT Movement and the State). The last day of the Conference, the participants adopted the Strategy to be the basis, and entrusted the Council of the Russian LGBT Network to finalize it, taking into account the suggested modifications, and to publish it in the course of one month.
After an open discussion, a series of regional organizations and groups were presented: LaSky, LaSky-Deaf, Liga (Volgograd), Coming Out (St. Petersburg), Antidogma and a group of activists from Chelyabinsk, The Wings (St. Petersburg), Krug-Kareliya and the Project PK (Petrozavodsk), Apogei (Tomsk), The Rainbow House (Tyumen), LGBT-Rights (Moscow), Favorit-Pulsar (Omsk), Rakurs (Arkhangelsk), and SDG (Krasnoyarsk). The Conference participants found these presentations to be very useful, since one of the problems of today’s LGBT movement is informational disunity – the activists in one region of the country are not aware of what’s going on in other regions.
DAY TWO
On Saturday, October 18, the Conference started with meetings of the following work groups: “Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the LGBT Community,” “Tolerant Society: Educational Projects,” “Overcoming Inner Homophobia,” “Mobilization of the LGBT Community and the Development of Regional LGBT Organizations,” “Gay and Lesbian Families and Parenthood,” and “Internet Projects.” As a result of the discussions, each work group formulated concepts for concrete projects, which would be brought to life by joint efforts.
A round table on “Protection of Rights and Rightful Interests of the LGBT Community: Position of the Human Rights Advocates” was held in the second half of the day. The speakers, representatives of well-known human rights organizations such as the MHG, the Fund Liberal Mission, YHRM, Human Rights Center of Kazan, the Association AGORA, the Swedish Helsinki Committee, and SIDA (Sweden), presented their view of the problem of discrimination of LGBT.
One of the main difficulties of participation by human rights advocates in protection of LGBT rights is the conflict between principles of the human rights movement and the personal beliefs of certain human rights advocates, which they find difficult to overcome. However, all the presenters underlined their readiness to work with the LGBT community and urged it to be more open and active. In particular, Nina Tagankina used the project of monitoring, carried out by the MHG jointly with the Russian LGBT Network, as an example of productive collaboration. Up until 2007, the MHG had no concrete information about the discrimination of LGBT. Today, however, a corresponding section is included in the annual report on “Human Rights in Russia.”
At the conclusion of the round table, Igor Petrov noted that the joint work between the LGBT activists and the human rights advocates will be built around two main principles: collaboration and independence. In his opinion, LGBT activists should treat those human rights advocates who would help only under the condition of anonymity with understanding.
DAY THREE
During the seminars of Sunday, October 19, the participants of the Conference discussed the following topics: “Fundamentals of Psychological Support Service,” “Working with Volunteers,” “Interaction between LGBT Organizations and the Mass Media and the Society,” and “Phone Support Service in the Regions.”
The seminars were followed by an organizational conference of the Russian LGBT Network, with around 70 participants. As the outcome of the conference, a decision was adopted to transform the Russian LGBT Network into an Interregional Public Movement “Russian LGBT Network.” The Constitution was passed and the governing and auditing bodies elected. Igor Petrov was elected Chairman of the Movement, while Maria Sabunaeva, Dmitry Filippov, Nadezhda Knyazeva, Valery Sozaev, Lilia Bostanova, Ruslan Zuev, Nina Tagankina, Maxim Gubin, and Alexandr Zhdanov were elected Members of the Council.
The end of the day concluded with a Conference recap.
The Conference was held with financial support of the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the ILGA-Europe.
