Sexual Diversity in Schools in Canada, the UK and Australia

Located at the intersection of health, education and morality, sex education has for a long time been a complex site of political struggle for lesbian and gay communities across a number of jurisdictions. The speaker will therefore highlight the progressive reforms that have been achieved in this area since the election of the New Labour in 1997 in England. Then, the subject of the public school recognition of sexual diversity in Canada will be discussed. This will be a comparative examination of how much school systems have recognised sexual diversity among their students, teaching staff, and administrators. The last part will be dedicated to school, coming out and being LGBT children.

Daniel Monk, Lecturer in Law, University of London (United Kingdom)
David Rayside, Director, Centre for Sexual Diversity, University of Toronto (Canada)
Vadim Doubine, Member, ILGA (Brussels), boyZout (Australia)

English

Public Education and Policies to
Combat Homophobia and discrimination

Educate, Break Community Barriers and Make a Difference!

First, a speaker will discuss the situation in the school system of Québec. From primary school to university, teachers must deal with the fact that two students in ten have love affairs or sexual relations with a same-sex partner, that many students have same-sex parents and that many of their colleagues (or themselves) are LGBT. However, school is still too often reluctant to acknowledge those realities and consider them. Then, the workshop will discuss GRIS-Montréal Political Field Actions. GRIS-Montréal demystifies homosexuality through social interventions in high school, college and university, as well as in workshops for immigrants and social workers. The goal of the presentation is to show that the social and political presence of GRIS-Montréal contributes to education and collaboration between the communities. As a social group, the action of GRIS-Montréal offers a way to educate society about homosexuality realities.

Michel Dorais, Ph. D., Université Laval (Canada)
Martin Girard, Former Demystification Coordinator, GRIS-Montréal (Canada)
Gilbert Émond, Research Coordinator, GRIS-Montréal (Canada)

Room:
512-D
Language:
French

How Heterosexuals Can Support the LGBT

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG): Going International with Support, Education and Advocacy

This is a facilitated panel and participant discussion format with speakers providing overview of experiences working with the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) model in the United States, Latin American countries, United States-based API communities and the Philippines. The goals are to explore with participants where else the PFLAG model may exist, how it can be effectively transmitted and nurtured around the world and how they can better communicate together. This session will in effect be a mini-summit to assess and plan ways that PFLAG’s mission of Support, Education and Advocacy among family and friends of LGBT people can be encouraged elsewhere.

Ron Schlittler, Deputy Executive, PFLAG (USA)
Nila G. Marrone, PFLAG (USA)
Belinda Dronkers, Chair Asian-Pacific, PFLAG (USA)

Room:
513-B
Languages:
Spanish

English

Building Strategic Alliances

Against War?

This workshop will look at how and why many LGBT activists connect their gay activism with anti-war activism. It is obvious that social services like health care, education and housing are hurt when military spending takes priority. The gay community’s particular need for AIDS health care and research for treatments and a cure will never be adequate as long as the United States spends as much on its military as almost the rest of the world combined.

Bob Schwartz, Member, Gay Liberation Network (USA)
Edgar Oscar Atadero, President, ProGay Philippines (Philippines)
Andy Thayer, National Action, DontAmend.com (USA)

Room:
516-E
Language:
English

Building Strategic Alliances

Building International Connections and Impacting Global Changes for Queer Asians

This workshop is a facilitated roundtable discussion on current activism agenda for queer Asian communities in Asia and overseas. It will also discuss on how synergistic international partnerships can be built to effect social changes.

Alan Li,Founding president, Asian Community AIDS Services (Canada)
Andre Goh,Asian Community AIDS Services (Canada)
Keith Wong, (Canada)

Room:
513-F
Language:
English

Queer Theory, Science and Strategy

LGBT Rights: Religion, Tolerance and Cultural Communities

This presentation looks closely at exclusionary politics “justified” in the name of religion/ethics in the context of State-of-rights societies and proposes a conceptual and praxiological way to counter such politics. This part of the workshop should bring the audience to better understand the challenges that religiously-motivated political action poses to pluralism and offer a simple yet complete introduction to the core elements of the grammar of radical political tolerance. The workshop will also elaborate on some of the ways in which contemporary discussions on multiculturalism have attempted to incorporate the themes of tolerance and respect into the discussions on different cultural communities. It will speak of the attacks on LGBT rights through the use of the ideological practices of national security. Finally, a speaker will give a presentation entitled “Human Rights and Homo-sectuals: The International Politics of Sexuality, Religion, and the Law”, in which he will argue that international human rights law does not adequately respect people’s plural religious and sexual identities.

Roberto Jovel, PhD Student, Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada)
Annamari Vitikainen, Researcher, Helsinki University (Finland)
Jeff Redding, Yale Law School (USA)

Room:
515-G
Language:
English

Queer Theory, Science and Strategy

Born that Way: the Legal, Ethical and Political Implications of Research on How Sexual Orientations Develop

Over the last few decades, scientific research on how sexual orientations develop has captured the attention of the media and of those concerned with legal, political, social and ethical issues related to gay men, lesbians and bisexuals. Many people have come to embrace the view that gay people are “born that way.” This workshop will discuss current research on sexual orientation and its implications in various contexts.
The presenters have very different areas of expertise and perspectives on these issues. They will approach the subject with the intention of encouraging discussion among the presenters and the audience about scientific research and its significance.

Edward Stein, Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Family Law, Policy and Bioethics (USA)
William Byne, Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine (USA)
Samuel Marcosso, Associate Dean for Student Life & Professor Louis D. Brandeis, School of Law, University of Louisville (USA)
Gary Mucciaroni, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, Temple University (USA)

Room:
521-C
Language:
English

A Model for the Development of LGBT Organisations

Building on COC’s 60 years of experience, the speakers will present a model in this workshop that shows the different phases that LGBT organisations go through in their development. The growth of LGBT organisations is general in some terms, but also very specific in others. The Speakers will also present the development of an existing organisation, from its inception to present day, as a concrete example. The participants will have an opportunity to evaluate the situation of their own organisation stands and how they can grow in future. Finally, lecturers will share their experiences and views on the development of the model itself and its future uses.

Peter Zijlema, COC (The Netherlands)
Jos Tomas, COC (The Netherlands)

Room:
512-A
Language:
English

LGBT in Nordic Regions: Achievements and Criticisms

This workshop will present the work of Tupilak and the Nordic Homo Council with human rights, homo politics and rainbow culture, with special emphasis on the newer groups on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea and in smaller Nordic towns outside the capital cities. It will illustrate how political and cultural work complement each other, and how Nordic lesbians and gays can also provide assistance to colleagues in Eastern Europe.

Bill Schiller, Chairman of Tupilak, Nordic Organization of Lesbian & Gay (Sweden)
Kristiina Keerov, Organiser, Moonbow International Cultural and Human (Estonia)
Gaston Lacombe, Alliance “Mozaika“ (Latvia)

Room:
513-D
Language:
English

Violence against and within the LGBT Communities in Canada

The first part of the workshop will discuss the Aaron Webster homicide in 2003 and provide an analysis of the two legal judgements produced from the prosecutions of two young men accused of Webster’s death. The second part will present the Safety Under the Rainbow (SUTR) project which is a coalition of LGBTT positive organisations in Alberta who are working together to raise awareness on violence aimed at and within the LGBTT communities. Specifically SUTR is putting together training modules, conducting research, and organising allies to work together on three issues: 1) youth bullying based on homophobia, 2) same-sex domestic violence between female intimate partners, and 3) same-sex domestic violence between male intimate partners. The committee members come from diverse organisations as well.

Allyson Lunny, Law and Society, York University (Canada)
Mélissa Luhtanen, Human Rights Educator, Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre (Canada)

Room:
512-B
Language:
English

LGBT Human Rights in Latin America

From Emancipation to Solidarity, Where Is The LGBT Movement in Latin America?

The goal of this workshop is to facilitate the thinking over the actual situation of the LGBT movement in Latin America, its advancements and the upcoming tasks.

Sylvia Calzada, Taller Lésbico Creativo (Puerto Rico)
Anibal Jose Martinez, Centro Nicaraguense Para el Desarrollo Humano (Nicaragua)
Timothy Frasca, (Chile)
Marcela Sánchez Buitrago, Diversa Colombia (Colombia)
Gloria Careaga-Pérez, El closet de Sor Juana (Mexico)

Room:
510-C
Language:
English

Spanish

LGBT Human Rights in Latin America

Sexual Diversity in Cuba: LGB Persons

As part of its work on raising public awareness of sexual diversity in Cuba, the Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX)is seeking to increase social acceptance of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons and same-sex couples, and to improve their legal situation. Many people outside of Cuba believe that LGB persons in Cuba are “oppressed”, relying on the book or film version of the memoirs of Reynaldo Arenas (1943-1990), “Before Night Falls” (“Antes de que anochezca”). But things have changed, especially since the film “Strawberry and Chocolate” (“Fresa y chocolate”) in 1994. In 1997, Cuba eliminated the last sexual orientation discrimination from its criminal law (the United Kingdom did not do so until 2003). In 2006, the first openly gay character has appeared in the television series “The Hidden Face of the Moon” (“La cara oculta de la luna”), and a proposed law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination has been drafted. The speakers will discuss these social and legal developments.

Robert Wintemute, Law Professor, King’s College London (United Kingdom; Canada)
Mariela Castro Espín, Director, Centro Nacional de Educacion Sexual (CENESEX) (Cuba)
Liván Soto González, Lawyer, Centro Nacional de Educacion Sexual (CENESEX) (Cuba)
Norma Guillard Lamonta, Lesbian Group, Centro Nacional de Educacion Sexual (CENESEX) (Cuba)

Room:
515-B
Language:
Spanish

LGBT Human Rights in Latin America

LGBT Human Rights in Brazil: Lesbian Citizenship, a Project of the National Association (ABGLT), and the role of Pride Parades

The first part of the workshop will present the results of a three-month course given to lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women on the topics of history, rights, legislation, culture and education in Brazil. The goal was to facilitate discussions and make the participants conscientious about their rights and about the need of lesbian and LGTB activism. A speaker will share the experience of the advocacy project (Projeto Aliadas) for the presentation of laws (legislation) promoting LGBT rights in the Brazilian Parliament. This experience involves grassroots mobilisation, partnerships with LGTB media and articulation with the Parliamentary Front for Free Sexual Expression. Finally, the role and importance of gay pride parades and the expected results of the destruction of stereotypes and social prejudices through such events will be discussed. The visibility and direct contact to the LGBT community through events such as gay pride parades can provoke the modification of ideas and attitudes towards the LGBT community, thus benefitting society as a whole. This is a slow cultural transformation process to which the LGBT´s Pride Parade is essential.

Bruna Pimentel Cilento, Administrative Coordinator, Lesbian Citizenship Course (Brazil)
Antonio Luiz Martins dos Reis, Secretary General, Brazilian Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Association (Brazil)
Renato Baldin, Associação da Parada do Orgulho de LGBT de São Paulo (Brazil)

Room:
521-A
Language:
 Portuguese

LGBT Human Rights in the Muslim and Arab Worlds

LGBT Human Rights in Iran

The body of work that will be presented will illustrate and examine the conditions under which the LGBT live within Iran. Focus points will illustrate Iran’s use of torture and public execution, the PGLO’s use of the internet as a support tool for the LGBT community of Iran. The subject of seeking asylum will be discussed. Many first-hand accounts will be relayed & a call for the global community to support our LGBT community subject to oppression under Sharia Law.

Arsham Parsi, Spokesman & Secretary of Human Rights Affairs, PGLO (Iran)
Benjamin Bradshaw,(USA)

Room:
511-B
Language:
English

LGBT Human Rights in Asia

Sexual Minorities in Sri Lanka and Nepal

The first part of the presentation will focus on the findings of assessment of social exclusion of sexual/gender minorities in Nepal. Then, the question of coming forward as an LGBT in Nepal will be discussed since it is an issue that still raises a lot of fears. Another part of the workshop will be dedicated to health priority issues regarding sexual, psychological, emotional and physical health of LGBTs in the Asian region. Also, the subject of forced marriage will be addressed.

Manjula Sampath, Member, Equal Ground (Sri Lanka)
Shiva lal Acharya, Member, Blue Diamond Society (India)

Room:
512-C
Language:
English

Immigration, Refugees and Freedom of Movement

Love in Exile: Immigration and Same-Sex Binational Couples

Globalisation isn’t just for business anymore. Cheap travel, Internet, chat rooms and events like this are doing more for foreign affairs than Condoleeza Rice!
So, what happens when boy meets boy on that exotic foreign holiday? Or you pocket the gal of your dreams at the Outgames billiards tournament?

Warning: That sexy foreign accent could lead to more than you bargained for. Only 17 countries in the world recognise same-sex partners for the purpose of immigration. More and more of us are shocked to discover that meeting the (wo)man of our dreams means choosing between exile and long periods of separation. Is exile in your future? Come find out how courageous couples are creating new lives and sharing the joys and obstacles of international romance.

Martha McDevitt-Pugh, Chair, Love Exiles Foundation (The Netherlands)
Robert Bragar,Board Member, Love Exiles Foundation (The Netherlands)
Lin McDevitt-Pugh, Board Member, Love Exiles Foundation (The Netherlands)
Gordon Stewart, Love exile

Room:
511-C
Language:
English

Issues of LGBTs in Rural and Remote Areas

Creating Rural and Regional Rainbow Connections in Canada and Australia

This workshop will discuss how to implement and manage a state-wide training program, Opening Closets in a huge geographical area like Western Australia with dispersed population and large regional differences. Opening Closets supports services to become more welcoming and understanding of people with non-mainstream sexuality and/or gender. In the second part of the workshop, the speakers will also be discussing the safety in rural areas, the isolation and the ageing issues in rural settings of LGBT people.

Kerstin Stender, Manager and Project Coordinator, Opening Closets Project (Australia)
Sandra Norman, Project Worker, Opening Closets Project (Australia)
JoAnne Brooks ,‘PRIDE’ Renfrew (Canada)
Joyce Drouin, ‘PRIDE’ Renfrew (Canada)

Room:
512-E
Language:
English

Aging in Canada: Understanding and Supporting the Needs of Gay and Lesbian Seniors

This workshop will focus on the challenges - and their solutions - that gay and lesbian seniors face in accessing health care across Canada. The session will begin with a presentation of data from interviews with elders, case managers, and care givers from three major Canadian cities. The focus will be on the obstacles that seniors face in the health care system and what LGBT community can do to either help seniors overcome these barriers and/or how to remove these barriers completely. Institutionalised homophobia will be discussed, and how it impacts how seniors access services. The last part of the workshop will be an opportunity for open dialogue between the presenters and the participants to talk about other approaches that could improve seniors’ experiences in the health care system and future directions for research and intervention.

Elizabeth Meyer, Ph.D. candidate, McGill University (Canada)
Line Chamberland, Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada)
Josette Bourque (Canada)

Room:
513-C
Language:
French

Issues of LGTBs of Colour

Strategies for Eradicating Homophobia Amongst Blacks

One part of the workshop will address Black heterosexism and homophobia among Caribbean and Canadian-born Black homosexual men. The workshop will also explore how Black heterosexist thinking is grounded in very specific gender expectations of masculinity, which some Black men must live up to and what are the consequences for not living up to it.

The other part of the workshop will address working on the front lines of the LGBT movement on America. Three leaders from the National Black Justice Coalition will present information on the current state of black LGBT America with emphasis on marriage equality, family connections, and religious issues. The National Black Justice Coalition is the only national civil rights organisation of concerned Black, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenders and their allies.

Wesley Crichlow, Professor, University of Ontario (Canada)
Ray Daniels, Director of Communications, National Black Justice Coalition (USA)
Alexander Robinson, Executive Director, National Black Justice Coalition (USA)
Sylvia Rhue, Director of Religious Affairs and Constituency Development, National Black Justice Coalition (USA)

Room:
516-A
Language:
English

Transgender, Transsexual and Intersexual ISSUES

Who Owns Our Bodies? Human Rights and Intersex Persons

The workshop will deal with the current laws in most countries which subject intersex infants to early mutilating surgeries and children to hormone therapy and other treatment in order to make them fit into the binary construct of sex and gender, a construct which does not reflect the natural world in which sex and gender are far too diverse to categorise within such a bipolar medico-legal scheme. We will speak about this oppressive binary system and how it has defined hermaphrodites throughout the centuries and the underlying homophobia and misogyny which have perpetuated this system which mutilates all of us, not just the intersexed.

Joëlle-Circé Laramée, Vice-President, Organisation Intersex International (Canada)
Curtis Hinkle, President, Organisation Intersex International (Canada)
Lucie Gosselin, Organisation Intersex International (Canada)

Room:
512-F
Language:
English

Employment, Workplace and Trade Unions

The Role of Global Unions in Achieving LGBT Worker’s Rights

Most Global Unions have committed themselves to the fight against discrimination in all its forms including sexual orientation and gender identity over the last five to ten years. At the Miyasaki Congress in December 2004, the ICFTU reaffirmed the 17th World Congress mandate to commit efforts and resource to overcome discrimination at work on the grounds of sexual orientation. Congress called on trade unions to fight prejudice, bigotry and intolerance in the workplace, in society and in the trade unions. The ETUC expressed the same at the 2003 Prague Congress, as did other regional organisations and Global Union Federations. The workshop will focus on the Role Global Unions play or should play in the international arena, for instance in the International Labour Organisation.

Leontine Bijleveld, Member of Executive Board, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (The Netherlands)
Deborah Bourque, Member of the Executive Board, UNI Global Union (Canada)
Bob Chase, Chair, EI-PSI GLBT Forum

Room:
510-B
Language:
Spanish

Recognition of Same-Sex Couples

Same-Sex Couples in Argentina

The objective of this workshop is to analyse and discuss the social and legal victories of the Argentinean homosexual community related to the promotion and approval of the Civil Union Law in the city of Buenos Aires, as well as the presentation of the national law project to the national parliament. The workshop will also provide participants with a glimpse of the situation of same-sex couples in new Argentinean legislation. A speaker will analyse the national constitution and case law of the national and provincial courts.

Eugenio Raul Zaffaroni,Judge, Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Argentina)
Laura Antonelle Arnés,Coordinator, La Fulana (Argentina)
Pedro Anibal Paradiso Sottile,Hacia La Union Civil Nacional (Argentina)
Leonardo J. Raznovich,Canterbury Christ Church University (United Kingdom)

Room:
511-A
Language:
Spanish

Parenting

Being Lesbian: Maternity and Family in Australia

This workshop will address definitions of family and disclosure of family configuration which are important themes for understanding the experiences of contemporary lesbian-parented families. Speakers will draw on recent Australian research which used multi-generational family interviews, exploring how parents, children and grandparents, describe and present their families in public contexts. The findings suggest that there is a marked difference in experience between lesbian-parented stepfamilies and lesbian-parented families where children are conceived and raised by lesbian parents from birth. Lecturers will also address implications of disclosure for various family members and in particular the struggle to gain acknowledgement and legitimacy for the role of the non birth parent in the continuing absence social recognition or legal protection in most states in Australia.

Also, the speakers will talk about The Royal Women’s Hospital (RWH), which undertook the Lesbian Health Project in 2000 to assess the literature and health experience of the lesbian community against developments in public policy, and a growing community interest in lesbian health. Partly due to this intense focus on lesbians wanting to create families, the hospital’s health promotion unit, absolutely women’s health, noted that women were putting their health at risk by attempting to conceive without medical assistance, due to the perceived fear of discrimination and not wanting to draw attention to their situation. Lesbians were as also creating precarious legal relationships with donors and non-biological mothers were failing to put adequate legal measures in place to protect their relationships with their children.

Rhonda Brown, Lecturer in Nursing, La Trobe University (Australia)
Ruth McNair, Senior Lecturer in General Practice, University of Melbourne (Australia)

Room:
512-H
Language:
English

Health Care and Other Services

Public Services Create Social Equality Essential for our Communities

Queer citizens rely on public services wherever they live. Public services create social equality essential for our communities. Access to health care, education and water resources depends on the service provider and the degree to which LGBT needs are considered. Privatisation of public services weakens social equality by reducing public access and control. Using a panel format and participant input, the workshop will explore the relationship between public services and social equality: How do queer citizens ensure that public services meet their needs? What happens when trans-national corporations deliver public services?

Bill Pegler, Canadian Union of Public Employees (Canada)
Martine Stonehouse, Canadian Union of Public Employees (Canada)
Fred Hahn, Canadian Union of Public Employees (Canada)
Dale McClure, Canadian Union of Public Employees (Canada)

Room:
513-E
Language:
English

Health Care and Other Services

Access to Health Care: A research Study in five European Countries

The workshop will present the results of this study, naming potential future actions, cooperation and tools to be used to support work on the issue of health in the region. Linking the question of health to the equality and social inclusion agendas of European Institutions will also be treated.

Miha Lobnik and Evelyne Paradis, ILGA-Europe (Belgium)
Maxim Anmeghichean, Programmes Director, ILGA-Europe (Moldova)

Room:
515-C
Language:
English

Education

Beneath the Surface - How to raise the issue of sexual orientation and homophobia in an Educational Working Environment

Beneath the Surface” is a European Union project, within the Equality Programme. The programme aims to combat all kinds of discrimination and exclusion in the workplace. “Beneath the Surface” concentrates on sexual discrimination with regards to orientation, focussing on the school system. In this workshop, speakers will present methods on how to approach the issue of sexual orientation as an aspect in the workplace for both employees and employers in a school, research about sexual orientation and related educational and professional issues and finally, strategies to encourage school administrations to consider sexual orientation as an element of the work environment.

Christine Gilljam, Development Director, Office of the Ombudsman against Discrimination on the grounds of Sexual Orientation (Sweden)
Anette Sjödin, Project Manager, Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Rights (Sweden)
Love Nordenmark, Equality Manager, Stockholm School of Education (Sweden)

Room:
513-A
Language:
English

Employment, Workplace and Trade Unions

Neither More nor less, just like everybody else

All organisations require tools to promote the rights of gays and lesbians internally. As judicial equality does not necessarily mean equal treatment in daily life, it is essential that each organisation make the appropriate efforts to sensitise their own members who in turn will become agents of social change. Inspired by the experience of the GRIS socio-homosexual research and intervention group (GRIS-Groupe de recherche et d’intervention sociale-homosexuelle), the CSN gay and lesbian labour group created an action plan to fight homophobia. This workshop will present the principles that led to the elaboration of such sensitisation tools and activities, their objectives, orientations as linked to the content and the various reeactions to these activities. Should the right to be different include the right to be indifferent? Aren’t we just like everybody else?

Francis Lagacé, Member, Groupe de travail des gais et lesbiennes (Canada)
Jacques Tricot, Member, Groupe de travail des gais et lesbiennes (Canada)
Dominique Dubuc, Teacher, Cégep de Sherbrooke (Canada)
Sophie Rousseau,Case Manager, Conseil Central de Québec de la CSN (Canada)

Room:
510-A
Language:
French

English

Spanish