Pride Solidarity Supports Day of Silence in St Petersburg

Around 50 people - members and friends of the Russian LGBT organization “Coming Out” (Vychod) - joined the international LGBT Youth initiative, the Day of Silence, to protest against the silence created by discrimination, humiliation and violence faced by LGBT people during their education. They were joined by Clare B Dimyon MBE of PRIDE Solidarity, a experienced teacher who is all too familiar with homophobia in British schools.

Russia has participated in the Day of Silence since 2008.

This ground-breaking enterprise in Russia was undertaken in three parts:

1) Day of Silence posters were placed on notice boards where students would see them

2) On 15 April (yesterday) leaflets were sent by fax to the city administration, the courts and prosecutor's office, dean's offices of universities and major media of the city. In total 120 faxes were sent.

3) On Sat 16 April, at 14:00 around 50 people gathered on the world famous Nevsky Prospekt and sealed their mouths with red tape. For over an hour they walked over 2km handing out leaflets explaining the “Day of Silence” as a protest against the harassment and discrimination faced by young LGBT people.

1200 leaflets were produced and none remained at the end of the action creating the most successful outreach action to ordinary people and officials ever seen in Russia.

Igor Kochetkov, director of Vychod (“Coming Out”) said: "We were silent and we were heard. What we, as LGBTactivists, see on the streets of St Petersburg, is more and more understanding of the unacceptability of violence and humiliation of human dignity."

Clare Dimyon MBE said: “It was a great privilege to take part in this action and while it was clear that participants were apprehensive, I certainly was, it was amazing to see that the reaction of the St Petersburg public was interested, even positive and a few even joined the flash mob. I was impressed by the thoughtful and efficient organisation of this action but especially by the young LGBT people who were taking part in an open action for the very first time. I was so very PROUD of them. It was also great that these LGBT History Makers were wearing the LGBT History Month badges that I brought from the UK.”

Photos
Facebook Photos

Videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhshgT3saX4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na1ZMQnbM1Y
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcbxXCu-om4

Lesbian Teacher Receives First Honour for Pride

Quaker lesbian Clare Dimyon was presented with an MBE by Prince Charles at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Friday 29 October.

Clare Dimyon, 45, a teacher and Quaker, is being honoured for “services to promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Central and Eastern Europe”.

Clare was first inspired to take part in gay PRIDE marches in Central and Eastern C&E Europe in Riga in 2007 and has since participated in PRIDE marches throughout the former Soviet bloc. Her first parade was 25 years ago, in London in 1985.

Clare’s engagement has prompted the flying of rainbow flags from British embassies overseas and the translation of the FCO Guide to LGBT People into local languages so that it is available to young people and their parents. In her work, Clare often highlights higher levels of suicide among young LGBT people and is acutely aware of the isolation of young LGBT people in C&E Europe who have less advice and support available to them.

She has been instrumental in increasing the number of countries whose embassies routinely support PRIDE parades and the human rights of LGBT people from seven in 2007 to twenty two in 2010...and counting!. This year alone saw the first ever PRIDE marches in Vilnius and Bratislava, both with significant support from the diplomatic community... including and especially the Brits!

Clare Dimyon says: "Slovak LGBT are kind enough to call me the “mother of Slovak PRIDE” but really I am more like the delinquent aunt of PRIDE in C&E Europe. They do all the work and take all the risks and I show up in support. "

European Prides Diary: 9th Slovak LGBT Film Festival 2

Clare Dimyon MBE is doing a travelogue of her latest European tour. Here is an account of her travels in Slovokia. Previous entries can be found here.

30 Sept 2010: Slovak LGBT Film Festival – you could feel proud or very humble indeed

After a lazy morning catching up on some zeds at Pension NOVA, Bratislava’s first gay hotel a ten minute tram ride takes me to the centre where LGBT are already gathering. Sure enough, a rainbow flag has gone up, hanging over the balcony at the front of VSMU, the Faculty of Music & Arts. The lobby is full and I greet old friends from 2009 and newer friends from Dúhový PRIDE last May. I feel totally at home in a recognisably LGBT environment with recognisable “types” chatting away in Slovak. I am left reflecting on the universality of our “tribe” and the universality of our experience within our different national and ethnic groups.

In C&E Europe, film festivals are a classic vehicle for LGBT gatherings even before PRIDE, the darkened rooms providing an ideal privacy for those who are not yet confident enough to be “out” even with other LGBT people. Just like Budapest PRIDE the Slovak Film Festival is an embarrassment of riches of films from around the world. The screen is arranged with a blank space at the bottom, this is for the Slovak sub-titles, separately projected often under the English sub-titles embedded in the film. I meet any number of C&E Europeans whose English is almost flawless, barely accented but there are plenty whose English is halting and plenty whose English is non-existent. Herein lies a burden unknown to LGBT in the English speaking world, the patient translation line by line of the script. In the corner is a woman hunched over a laptop, explaining that this is the film scheduled for tomorrow night, which only arrived yesterday! Another runs up to me and rather excitedly explains she translated me in my tiny walk on part in Beyond Gay, which will be screened tomorrow. Another woman laughs as she explains that she struggled to catch the Slovak sub-titles up with the film because there were differences in script between the version that had been translated and the version that was being shown so that it was completely out of sync. All the translation, all the additional work in projecting the sub-titles is voluntary effort by LGBT donating their skills and expertise to make LGBT culture accessible to LGBT compatriots who lack those languages. I could say “it makes me proud” but in fact as an English speaking lesbian, it makes me feel very humble indeed.

Best wishes

European Prides Diary: 9th Slovak LGBT Film Festival

Clare Dimyon MBE is doing a travelogue of her latest European tour. Here is an account of her travels in Slovokia. Previous entries can be found here.

29 Sept 2010: Arrival at the 9th Slovak LGBT Film Festival

I feel great excitement as the bus from Vienna rounds the bend to reveal the classic view of the Slovak capital, the Hrad, the castle housing the parliament, and the iconic bridge of Bratislava, renamed the “Rainbow Bridge” after it formed the main route of the first ever Dúhový (rainbow) PRIDE last May. Four months later I am on my way to the 9th Slovak LGBT Film Festival, with a fabulous programme of films, plenty of films from the English speaking world films but also LGBT films from Latin America, Germany and the Netherlands as well as films from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia including one about that Rainbow Bridge and the stunning PRIDE hosted by Slovak LGBT people and their friends and families. I get a bit lost on the trams and someone offers to help, then she recognises me and we realise we met at PRIDE!

After catching up on some sleep at the hotel the gay owner takes me to the opening ceremony, stopping en route at the gay bar he also runs and I meet the staff who are as “camp as Christmas” and while their English is halting (and my Slovak is worse!) it is astonishing to reflect that we are very identifiably one people something I have noticed across Central & Eastern Europe from Moldova to Macedonia. I feel very relieved for them that they have a gay employer and some financial independence so that they can be themselves. The hotel owner tells me, again in halting English, that his whole family know and indeed we have a drink with his uncle and brother-in-law. He says it’s been easier since he had the hotel, he is becoming well know in his neighbourhood for his excellent lunches and people are positively sending their clients to the gay hotel for lunch. It’s hard not to feel rather proud of this gay business, which is reaching out to his neighbours and generating positive acceptance for LGBT people. He says he can’t afford it yet but he’d like to have flags outside the hotel, the national flags as usual but also including the rainbow flag.

At the opening ceremony of the Slovak LGBT Film Festival, there are rainbow flags a plenty and a photographic exhibition and we are treated first to an amazing latin dance routine and then some speeches including a very impressive speech from the Dutch ambassador, who explains that her sponsorship of the festival is in keeping with the Dutch government’s promotion of the human rights of LGBT people and mentions that Dúhový PRIDE Bratislava was her first experience of getting tear gas in her eyes. The Slovak LGBT Film Festival is not only supported by the US, Dutch Irish and Nordic countries but also by the Hungarian Institute of Culture and by the Slovak Ministry of Culture who declare that they are proud to “support initiatives aimed at preventing discrimination in Slovak society, that contribute to the integration of LGBT people and to challenge myths and stereotyped views about them.” All this is a great tribute to what has already been achieved by Slovak LGBT and I wonder if it is possible to feel prouder.

European Prides Diary: Czech PRIDE and shame 3

Clare Dimyon, who was recently given an honour for her work, sends us her impressions from her tour of the east-european prides (read part 1 here and part 2 here):

Sunday 27 June 2010 - 10:00

Wow! Even writing the date makes me tingle, 40 years since our first PRIDE parades, 41 years since the first resistance by LGBT people – all in my lifetime...just!

Up bright and early after a wonderfully deep sleep, the sun is shining and we are already bathed in heat. As “dobrovolnice” that’s volunteers...we have to be in the square for as soon after 10am as possible to help with the set up and the security. There’s one religious homophobe praying and trying to “protect” the statue of the Virgin Mary but since we are setting up the stage right next to it, I figure the dear lady has all the protection she needs but make a point of digging out the placards with the words of Jesus just to ward any foul homophobic spirits off us! Goodness me! Ordinary uniformed police are out in force even at this early hour. The outcome of Brno Queer Parade 2008 didn’t reflect too well on the Brno police so I anticipate they will be making every effort to demonstrate effective policing. Sadly that seems to involve closing down Freedom Square and the parade route but plenty of the members of the public are there already and they won’t be removed unless they commit a crime.

Late last night we heard that the lovely lesbian singer from Switzerland couldn’t come because her partner needed urgent and life critical surgery. She even sent an email filled with apology but where-else would we want her to be except at her partner’s bedside? This morning we heard of another couple who cancelled at the last minute due to serious health reasons, all a bit dispiriting for the organisers who are anyway in that awful moment of wondering if anyone will turn up! So we chat and help with preparing the stage and greet old friends as they arrive and McDonalds does a brisk trade with parade participants and robo-cops alike! They must be extraordinarily hot under all that gear. I am already baking in a tshirt.

The Queer.cz shop arrives and sets up and does a brisk trade in rainbow accoutrements and at 1pm prompt the speeches start with a welcome in the Brno dialect, which although my Czech is awful sounded just hilarious! Jiŕi Hromada, the veteran gay rights campaigner in the Czech Republic made a speech that was warmly received and so did Dzamila Stehlikova, the former Czech Minister for Human Rights and Minorities. Depressingly, this is a post the new right wing coalition has just abolished and it doesn’t seem like Czech L GBT people have much to hope for from the incoming government. The bizarre anomaly is that while there is legal provision for registered partnerships between two people of the same gender once you are registered partners you cannot adopt. Married heterosexuals can adopt and single lesbian and gay people can adopt but lesbian and gay people who are registered partners cannot. We had plenty of lovely music and some more speeches including from one of the organisers of the magnificent Dúhový PRIDE Bratislava, which took place only a month ago. Happily Brno and Bratislava are only a couple of hours apart.

Then for my speech which is much harder when you have to stop every couple of sentences to allow for translation, it’s quit hard to develop a “flow”. I tried to say a few words in Czech and some nice things about Brno and the Czech Republic and since some barmy (and very wonderful) Czech lesbian was holding up the Lesba Britskeho Imperia (Lesbian of the British Empire) in a mortifying way, I thought I’d better explain how unimaginable this idea was when I went on my first parade in London in 1985, 25 years ago. Anyhow, it seemed to go down well but it’s quite strange afterwards when everyone recognises you and you don’t recognise them and how they get to feel important because they think you are someone important. Well, whatever works!

So then a couple more speeches and greetings and we were off, flags and placards for a once round the centre of Brno...one man stopped me and asked me about my flags, I assumed he was friendly until I realised he was trying to SET FIRE to them with his cigarette lighter and the flags were only saved by the immediate presence of one of the unique Czech “anty-conflikt tym” – the anti-conflict team who shepherded him away but curiously didn’t arrest him, before my flags could catch fire. Off we went a little subdued at first but then the chanting got going and we waved our flags and had a great time. Then there was the obligatory smoke bomb, designed to make people fear tear gas I think but we soon realised it was a boring old smoke bomb and roared our disapproval and the robo-cops moved in to isolate the incident. Of course what we couldn’t see were the volumes of anti-protesters behind the barricades set up by police. I am caught between finding this depressing on the one hand and not wanting to give the too much attention as this is clearly what they want. It annoys me that after all the work of the PRIDE organisers who behave legally and non-violent, it is these gangs of thugs who get all the attention. I can’t help feeling that is exactly what they want.

We had our wonderful 40th birthday parade and returned to Freedom Square, where there were about three “God botherers” praying at the statue of Our Lady and were interfering in the interviews Czech television were trying to do with Jolana. They wanted us to move away from the statue as though we were in some way desecrating it and this really started getting on my nerves and it seemed a really bad idea to give into this because it was in some way accepting that we were a “desecration”. So I dug out my “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” and walked around the situation making sure the LGBT could see what the placard said. Sure enough smiles started breaking out and out came the cameras. Then I decided on a nice Quaker vigil standing by the statue, after all I am a religious person so of course I should be witnessing against religious inspired homophobia. One very persistent chap tried to move me to one side, I moved a little and explained sufficiently loudly for the police to hear, that I was a religious person and had a perfect right to stand with the Virgin Mary if I wanted to. The so called “religious” chap wasn’t happy about this and expected the cops to intervene which they...didn’t so I continue my Quaker vigil against homophobia. The words of Jesus desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary, I don’t think so matey! Anyhow a few minutes they slunk away and told me I was a “shame” and I replied, “No sir, it is homophobic attitudes that shame the church.” Is this the same Catholic Church whose “morality” has involved the wholesale sexual abuse of children? They can talk to me about morality in about....400 years time!

And we gathered later that evening to party the night away. Sadly all the extra expense of the security to ensure people didnt get hurt has left the organisers out of pocket so efforts are under way to raise some cash to make sure they are not out of pocket.

Meanwhile all attention turns to Budapest whose opening Ceremony is next Sunday 4th July! (and a few people in the region will be going to Vienna for their PRIDE next Saturday but as for me it is time for a break to restore my energy levels ready for Budapest and then Warsaw.

European Prides Diary: Czech PRIDE and shame 2

Clare Dimyon, who was recently given an honour for her work, sends us her impressions from her tour of the east-european prides (read part 1 here):

Thursday 25 June - 20:00

A lovely lazy day in bed waiting for the statement of support for Czech PRIDE – Brno Queer Parade to arrive from the British Embassy. It occurred to me to would be worth dropping an email to the embassies of the other PRIDE supporting countries just in case they could rustle something up for us at the last minute. When we have PRIDE Prague it will be a lot easier and it will be such fun parading over the Charles Bridge and having an Afterparty on one of the gorgeous bits of beach by the Vltava river.

Back to Brno 2010: Late in the afternoon the British Embassy statement of support arrives in both Czech and English, appearing on the home page of the embassy so I make sure it is posted all over the place on Facebook just in case it can help anyone feel more confident to come. Then we head out for the park and meet up with a gang making signs for the parade testing my Czech language to the full: “My wife is a lesbian and I tolerate it!” and a gorgeous rendition of the Brno Eagle a la Queer. The Czech LGBT seem rather pleased with the MBE so we make a sign “Lesba Britského Impéria” – Lesbian of the British Empire. It’s so embarrassing but people are so pleased so the only way to deal with it is to camp it up outrageously.

Then I remember the so called “religious” people from the last Brno Queer Parade in 2008 who “did their thing” at the shrine/statue of the Virgin Mary in the centre of the Freedom Square. As a Quaker and therefore a religious person it makes me cross that the argument is polarised between “religious” on the one hand and the LGBT and therefore “irreligious” on the other so suitably inspired I ask for a translation of two of Jesus’ more quotable quotes: “Judge not lest you be judged.” and “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” I paint them merrily onto cardboard carton with suitable guidance for the Czech diacritics (accents and hats). I can see this is a bit counter-intuitive for the LGBT who are having that usual cringe about “religious” things so I explain that even if you forget all arguments about human rights and base your arguments solely on the Bible, homophobia cannot possibly be justified. I talk about the difficulties of LGBT who have a Christian faith and those whose parents do and suggest that this is why it is necessary to engage in these arguments even if we do not share this religious faith.

We have a lovely time in the park, in the open, drinking beer and painting signs and admiring each others signs with slight apprehensions about the threat posed by the neo-fascists. Practical as ever Jolana makes a huge new sign “Gay Nazi Boys: Join us! We know you want” and teacher as ever I squeeze in “to” at the end. Curiously, this is a phrase that just doesn’t work in Czech and someone jokes maybe they won’t even be able to understand the English. I’m kind of hoping they won’t get near enough to be able to read it! The signs finished we all clear up and head home, and I go with a lovely lesbian couple who have offered to put me up for a couple of nights.


Saturday 26 June

Rainbow flag burning, nasty extremist incidents but a successful parade despite the constraints and adversities.
(I'm being upbeat but really it was awful - and it leaves the Czechs needing guidance from the Bulgarians which is just ridiulous!)

Pictures and press coverage (in Czech):

http://brnensky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/queer-parade-ochromi-stred-brna20100626.html

http://domaci.ihned.cz/c1-44486960-brnem-sel-pruvod-homosexualu-policie-zabranila-stretu-s-odpurci

http://obrazem.ihned.cz/c1-44487750-bez-stretu-podivejte-se-jak-probihal-brnensky-pochod-homosexualu

http://www.lidovky.cz/brno-se-zmenilo-v-pevnost-proti-gayum-sli-krestane-a-radikalove-psx-/ln_domov.asp?c=A100626_115542_ln_domov_hrn

http://brno.idnes.cz/foto.asp?c=A100626_131934_brno-zpravy_zma&r=brno-zpravy&strana=1

http://www.pluska.sk/zahranicie/gayovia-lesby-pochodovali-brnom.html

European Prides Diary: Czech PRIDE and shame 1

Clare Dimyon, who was recently given an honour for her work, sends us her impressions from her tour of the east-european prides:

Thursday 24 June - 12:35

Sitting in a cafe in Prague before heading onto Brno (the second city of the Czech Republic) for Brno Queer Parade. I was at Tábor Queer Parade last year but in 2008 was in Prague for dear Czech friends wedding. An easy anniversary to remember! 27th June – the anniversary of Stonewall so I have no excuse to forget. And these dear Czech friends are like family, I have known them and they are the reason I first came to Czech Republic and stayed with them in 1996 so I am always delighted to be in Prague.

Hehe... shades of NYPD Blues, the Prague cops have just driven past with “Serve and protect” in Czech emblazoned on their cop car. It always makes me laugh!

Later today I shall take the Student Agency bus to Brno (hot tip: Goes from “Florenc” bus station -cheap, free drinks and WiFi all the way!) to stay with the wonderful Ms Navratilova, not quite “the” Ms Navratilova... but as a moving force behind the celebration of PRIDE in the Czech Republic, J is up there! Hilariously, Navratilova (and they don’t say quite the same as we do) is a very common Czech name, not quite Smith but close! It is fitting that one of the moving forces behind Czech PRIDE should share a name with someone who (for my money) changed the course of every lesbian’s life, certainly of my generation or older with first her courage to defect to the West in 1980-81 and then as soon as her Green Card and permission to stay in the States was confirmed coming out. People could not forget that they had admired her. I know she made my “coming out” a couple of years later much easier than it might have been.

And Martina who has now reclaimed her Czech citizenship to go alongside her American citizenship supported the first ever Czech PRIDE in Brno in 2008 with a letter of support. One of the world’s most renown Czechs is a lesbian, one of the world’s most renown lesbians is Czech, it can be no accident that while not perfect yet, the legal situation for LGBT in the Czech Republic is one of the most advanced in C&E Europe with Civil Partnerships and Czech embassies across C&E Europe regularly joining joint embassy actions in support of PRIDE parades and the human rights and dignity of LGBT people.

I’m hoping to take such a message of support to Brno this afternoon where the atmosphere is positive but a little apprehensive with neo-fascists venting their spleen on various websites and threatening counter-demonstrations. With the difficulties experienced at Brno QP in 2008, the apprehensions are realistic but optimism prevails following good organisation with the police and that unique Czech conception, the “anti-conflict team” an English concept unknown in the UK rendered into Czech spelling!

I’m looking forward to seeing my dear friends both Czech and Slovak since Brno is only an hour and half from Bratislava the capital of Slovakia, where Slovak LGBT are glowing from the magnificence of their first ever parade, the Dúhový PRIDE – Bratislava on Sat 22 May where they made not only Slovak and LGBT history but also marked the milestone that in this 40th birthday year, PRIDE has been to every country of the EU! Last but certainly not least!

PS: The name of the Czech town “Tábor” means “camp” – Czech LGBT seemed to enjoy that one! A bit like the Moldovan lesbian telling me that the Moldovan national anthem is in fact rather “lesbian”!