BGO Gemini is one of the organizations that addressed a protest to the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. The protest letter was written by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee about the reduction of the members, budget and administration of the Bulgairan Commission for Protection against Discrimination (CPAD). In the document is said that CPAD is a law defending state agency and her restrictions are going make the work of CPAD difficult.
Diversity Day is having a 2 years tradition in Bulgaria and is on 29 October. This year Bulgarian Ministry of Labor and Social Policy organized conference entitled "Diversity Day" which closing part of work shops was on 29 and 30 October. The event was held in Sofia at the Forum Hotel. The NPO Against discrimination attended the conference and so did BGO Gemini activists. See for more information the website of the initiative: www.stop-discrimination.info
Sofia Rainbow Friendship Rally 2009 Programme June 27th, Sofia
Press-briefing: The Right to be Different: LGBTs in the EU
Timing: 11:00AM – 13:00PM
Venue: Bulgarian Telegraphic Agency, entrance with accreditations and invitations
Keynote speakers (in order of the presentations):
Blagoy Vidin – Commission for protection against discrimination Ginyo Ganev (or Borislav Tsekov) (National Ombudsman of Bulgaria) – to be confirmed Margarita Pesheva (Chairperson of the Bulgarian Council for Electronic Media) – to be confirmed Linda Freiman (ILGA-Europe, Co-Chair of the Executive Board) Michael Cashman (MEP – European Socialists, Chair of the Inter-Group for LGBT Rights at the EP) Nick Leake (Embassy of the United Kingdom in Bulgaria, Deputy head of mission ) Martijn Elgersma (Deputy Head of Mission, Royal Netherlands Embassy in Sofia) Dr. Israel Butler (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Seconded National Expert) Lars Normann Jørgensen (Secretary General of Amnesty International) Stanimir Panayotov, representatve of the organising committee of the Rainbow Friendship
Panel I: Keynote addresses and presentations (11 – 11.30) This panel is split into two parts: A) Introducing the participants of the briefing and B) appr. 30 minutes overall for all presentations – estimated time is 5 min per presenter.
Panel II: Questions and discussion
In this panel the accredited journalists and invitees will be given the word to raise questions and issues stemming from Panel I.
Facilitator: Aksinia Gencheva
Interpreter: Kristina Nikolova
Sofia Rainbow Friendship Rally 2009
Timing: 16:30PM – 18:00PM
Starts at: The Sighs Bridge, National Culture Palace Ends at: Center for Culture and Debate Red House
With the participation of: Elsa Parini, Dance & DJ show
Sofia Rainbow Friendship at the Center for Culture and Debate Red House
Timing: 18PM-22PM
Venue: Center for Culture and Debate Red House
Programme:
18PM: Official Welcome to the priders made by:
Mr. Michael Cashman
The Organizers
The Hosts
18.05PM-19.30PM: Gaze in the Mirror (Video Art Selection currated by Boryana Rossa):
Selection of short experimentals and documentaries dedicted to issues of equal rights and gay culure. Varieties of approaches from street action and performance to documentary research are used by artists to explore and challenge the stereotypes and prejudices of contemporary society. The authors create visual metaphors and symbolic celebrations to inform society and provoke action to promote equality and love.
With the works of:
Jim de Sève, Tara Mateik, Pink Bloque, Kathy High, Carolyn Ryder Cooley, Lee Mingwei and Virgil Wong, Elizabteh Stevens and Annie Sprinkle, Boryana Rossa
Detailed info:
Tying the Knot, 2004, documentary, 82 min
Directed by Jim de Sève
two excerpts, 10 min each
Producers: Jim de Sève, Stephen D. Pelletier, Kian Tjong From an historical trip to the Middle Ages, to gay hippies storming the Manhattan marriage bureau in 1971, Tying the Knot digs deeply into the past and present to uncover the meaning of civil marriage in America today. Best documentary award at San Francisco LGBT Film Festival Frameline, 2004.
PYT, 2005, experimental music video, 4.16 min By Tara Mateik
Suspend your disbelief and salute the constant state of preadolescent gender in Never Never Land where the principal boy, Peter, is played by a woman. In 1903, Nina Boucicault played Peter Pan in the original London production. Reviewer Denis Mackail enthusiastically noted that,
“others will be more boyish, or more principal-boyish, or gayer and prettier, or sinister and inhuman, or more ingeniously and painstakingly elfin, but Miss Boucicault was the Peter of all Peters... she was unearthly but she was real. She obtruded neither sex nor sexlessness.”
In the spirit of Boucicault PYT throws social codes of masculinity into crisis.
Pink Bloque, 2002-05, documentation of street actions, 12.52 min
Documentation of the actions of the Pink Bloque, a Chicago-based feminist street dance troupe founded in early 2002 as a creative response to the depressing atmosphere of leftist activism in post-911 America. The Pink Bloque used the language of popular dance forms, music, and cuteness in an attempt to engage unexpecting audiences in dialogues about current political situations. An archive about their project is at www.pinkbloque.org. Video shot by many allies in the streets, edited by Blithe Riley and Dara Greenwald.
The Icky and Kathy Thrilogy, 1999, experimental, 9 min Directed by Kathy High
Shot in black and white, this rough-and-ready trilogy is about twin sisters who „act out“ and act up in their own best interests. At the age when a young girl might discover her own sexuality, they explore themselves (and each other) in „games“ and playtime together. In the three sections—“Icky and Kathy Find Liberty“, „The Babysitter“, and „Learning To Suck“—the girls engage in slightly illicit acts together. Being naughty can be fun!
Creating a hybrid of film and performance, Ryder Cooley tells the story of a magnolia tree and a deer. Fantasmic metaphor of human sexulity, this video talks about of human & animal interrelations, through creation of a hybrid creatures, in order to blur the division between masculine/feminine identity.
Male Pregnancy, documentary, 1999, 7.30 min By Lee Mingwei and Virgil Wong
„Mr. Lee Mingwei is the first human male in history to gestate a fetus within his own body. This procedure was made possible through a phase II clinical trial at RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center.“ The website and the film convincingly tell the story of the „first male pregnancy,“ raising questions of gender roles and stereotypes, politics of care and hospitality.
Love Art Laboratory, 2009, documentation of weddings and performances, 5.52 min By Elizabteh Stevens and
„We, Elizabeth M. Stephens and Annie M. Sprinkle, are an artist couple committed to doing projects that explore, generate, and celebrate love. We utilize visual art, installation, theater pieces, interventions, live-art, exhibitions, lectures, printed matter and activism. Each year we orchestrate one or more interactive performance art weddings in collaboration with various national and international communities, then display the ephemera in art galleries. Our projects incorporate the colors and themes of the chakras, a structure inspired by Linda M. Montano’s 14 Years of Living Art.
The Love Art Laboratory grew out of our response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and our prevailing culture of greed. Our projects are symbolic gestures intended to help make the world a more tolerant, sustainable, and peaceful place.
Loveartlab.com is a virtual home where the artists share their progress, documentation and findings. They invite you to collaborate on their forthcoming weddings in 2010 and 2011. Here you can find the call for collaboration for their last wedding that was on June 14th at Groove House, Oxford, England.Http://loveartlab.org/slideshow.php?year_id=5&cat_id=105
Official Invitation, 2007, experimental video (no sound), 7.20 min By Boryana Rossa
This video makes ironic comment on the Bulgaria highly celebrated institution of the “body-guard.”
This piece puts into question patriarchal hierarchies created on the basis of gender role models accepted as “given” by nature. For this piece the male body-guards are played by two gay and bi-sexual women who got bruises on their faces--a result of domestic violence or a victorious battle...
DJ Party at the Red Hall
Rainbow Friendship Rally 2009 Recieved Institutional Support
Rainbow Friendship Rally 2009 Recieved the Institutional Support from Several Embassies in Sofia
The Rainbow Friendship Rally, which will be held on June 27, 2009 in Sofia, received the official support of several embassies and the political party THE GREENS. The parade will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots in New York, USA, when there were laid the fundaments of the International LGBT* movement for equal rights.
Among the foreign representations, that support the parade, are the British Embassy, the Embassy of Belgium, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Embassy of Denmark, the Embassy of Finland, the Embassy of the French Republic, the Embassy of Sweden, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway and the Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany in Sofia. All of them made statements, published in their official websites.
The ambassadors of the countries that support Rainbow Friendship, as well as THE GREENS, wto share the ideas and requests of this parade organizers, are gathered around the idea to promote respect for the human rights, which is main topic also for the parade. They all quote the EC Treaty, which include sexual orientation, as well as rely on the European democratic values, and namely everyone to be able to fully enjoy their human rights, without distinction of any kind
Rainbow Friendship brings positive messages of friendship and understanding among the people. The organizers invite everyone, who cherishes the freedom of the human rights to join the rally and to have fun together.
The full programme of the event will be announced in the beginning of the next week.
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Rainbow Friendship is organised by coalition of NGOs and representatives of the private sector, among wich International InterPride Association, Bulgarian Gay Organization Gemini, ID Mix Club, Resource Center for Bisexual Women and Lesbians “Bilitis” and Bulgarian Activists Alliance. This will be the second event of it’s kind in Bulgaria and will be held under the motto of the friendship.
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