"We are overjoyed over the great turnout and mass media coverage of our opening photo exhibit by Belarus photographer, Elena Adamchik", says Forum co-organizer, Lithuanian fashion designer, Olga Rink. The crowd at the city's prestigious Polish art gallery was a sign of growing courage among the homosexual community in a nation where only 8 years ago, lesbians and gays were still criminals according to Soviet law.

The following days' seminars at Men's Factory - Lithuania's only gay bar and disco -- included presentations from Latvian artist, Armins Ozolins, cultural ambassador of the International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network and organizer of stage 1 of ILGCN's 4th World Homo Cultural Conference in Riga, September 7-9.

The Forum also included the ILGCN's 2nd "Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals" with a seminar and presentation of publications and art by Colin de la Motte-Sherman of ILGCN-Berlin.

Prize and Art Honouring Research on Gays in the 3rd Reich

The ILGCN's "Orfeo Iris 2001" award winner was announced, going to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. for education and research on the Nazi imprisonment and murder of homosexuals. The award includes art work by prize-winning Finnish painter, Ismo Hyvärinen. Linz and Mauthausen were confirmed as sites for the 3rd such event, organized by HOSI-Linz in May, 2002.

Seminars at the club - also followed by newsmen and TV cameras - covered Nordic homo culture and working with such allies as UN contacts, the World Humanists and Amnesty International. The Dutch Amnesty documentary film, "Outlawed" was also screened.

Local gays described experiences of homophobic treatment, lost jobs and fears that television exposure even now could result in harassment and dismissal. Among Forum performers were Bjolka Maya, cabaret artist and ILGCN cultural ambassador of Belarus, Swedish pioneer gay singer/song writer, Jan Hammarlund, and Chilean-born Swedish lesbian, Deborah Cortes, who read her own poetry.

"We have pledged continuing co-operation with colleagues in both Lithuania and Belarus," says Bill Schiller, Nordic ILGCN co-ordinator and international secretary of Tupilak (Nordic organization of homo cultural workers). "And we are especially proud that Jan, Deborah and I were able to participate in this historic event thanks to Sweden's Left Party, well known for its support of homosexual rights. We're glad that more and more people are realizing that homo culture is a powerful weapon against homophobia and silence - especially in intolerant societies and in such dictatorships as Belarus."

"We were also proud to have handed over to Olga Rink and other Forum organizers the first copy of the ILGCN-Nordic CD, "Out in the Open - a century of Swedish homo history," concludes Schiller. "This is an extended, homo music-filled Radio Sweden interview with prize-winning curator Lena Högberg of the Stockholm City Museum -- to be used with Tupilak's slide collection of beautiful Nordic lesbian and gay art and photography."

Colin de la Motte-Sherman