|
Rainbow
Humanists
It’s been
a busy year for the Stockholm-based Nordic
Rainbow Humanists.
Bill
Schiller reports.
|
 |
|
Bill Schiller |
Nordic
Rainbow Humanists have once again joined
forces with their traditional allies the
Nordic Rainbow Cultural Workers, Nordic
Rainbow Council and the International
Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network in a number
of LGBT events over the last year in Sweden,
elsewhere in the Nordic region and in
Eastern Europe.
Events over
the past year have included presentations,
distribution of leaflets, displays of
photography and artwork and answering
questions from the audiences – some
astounded to learn that there are others
criticising religious oppression and not
just the Communists, especially in the East,
where the different religions are regarded
as heroic survivors of Soviet times.
At this
year’s Stockholm Pride, the Nordic Rainbow
Humanists (NRH) had special presentations
both at the Pride House and at a city
theatre cultural day, hosted by NRH member
Rolf Solheim from Norway and attended by
Nordic Rainbow Humanist award winner,
Carl-Johan Kleberg, formerly chairman of the
Swedish Humanist Association.
Rainbow Humanist Award
We were also
present at the international solidarity
events in Visby on the Swedish Baltic island
of Gotland and at the giant International
Book Fair in Gothenburg.
Other Nordic
events and discussions took place on
Finland’s Åland Islands (between Sweden and
Finland), the First Baltic Pride in Riga (we
include Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in the
Nordic family) and the Tribade Festival in
Helsinki.
Events in
Eastern Europe included the ILGCN conference
stages in Bucharest (where we presented the
2009 Nordic Rainbow Humanist Award to the
newly formed Romanian Humanists for their
support of the Romanian LGBT movement),
Budapest and St Petersburg.
On 9
November, “Kristall Nachten” was part of
the international memorials marking this
date, when the Nazi regime launched its
violent, window-smashing attack on Jews in
Berlin, signalling the beginning of the
extermination of Jews, Roma, homosexuals,
dissidents and others in the concentration
camps.
The event
included discussions of our joint solidarity
events during the year, the recent and
historic LGBT conference in Belarus and our
special art exhibit, Nazi & Neo-Nazi
Persecution of Homosexuals.
Bill
Schiller is international secretary of
Nordic Rainbow Humanists
|
