The Annual Conference of Interpride took place in Florida - Toronto will host the World Pride 2004
140 delegates representing 51 gay prides from all around the world met in St Petersburg (Florida) during the Annual Conference of InterPride, the International Pride Organizers Association. The Moscow and Slavic Gay Prides were represented by Nikolai Alekseev, head of the Human Rights Project GayRussia.Ru
Numerous seminars were held during the conference covering various aspects of the organization of gay prides such as marketing and promotion of prides through the internet, advocacy, sponsoring, cooperation with religious groups, tourism, and health.
During a specific seminar dedicated to hosting prides in difficult conditions, organizers of Slavic Pride and Baltic Pride explained the challenge they face in their countries. After the audience watched a TV footage from French TV France 4 about this year’s Slavic Pride in Moscow, Nikolai Alekseev explained the latest developments with the European Court of Human Rights which opened the case of the ban of Moscow Prides 2006, 2007 and 2008.
On Saturday morning took place an informal screening of the documentary “Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride” which is scheduled to Premiere in Montreal in a week. The film is dedicated to the gay pride movement in the world. A substantial part of the movie features the 3rd Moscow Pride held in May-June 2008.
After the screening, Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk’s nephew, spoke to the audience about his experience at the Madrid and Istanbul Gay Pride this year. Milk stressed that no one should forget the important human rights dimension of gay prides.
Stuart Milk enquired about the situation of gay rights in Russia as well as the recent visit of U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton in Moscow. He also accepted the invitation of Nikolai Alekseev to attend next year Moscow Pride on May 29, 2010 and promised to raise the issue at the highest political level. Mr Milk recently received an award for his uncle's campaign for gay rights from President Obama.
An important event for the Russian gay pride movement was the unanimous decision of the board to appoint Nikolai Alekseev as Member of the Board and Regional Director of InterPride for Eastern Europe (Region 8).
The delegates also unanimously decided to hold the 2011 Annual Conference in Brussels. This will come after next year conference which will be held in Long Beach (California).
Finally, the delegates decided to award the 2014 World Pride to Toronto. After a strong campaign, the capital of Ontario received 78% of the votes in a second round. London will hold the World Pride in 2012 during the Olympics.
According to Nikolai Alexeyev, "Participating in this conference was a tremendous experience. It was important to share experience with other pride organizers and explain our struggle for equal rights of LGBT people in Russia. I was also very touched by my meeting with Stuart Milk which whom I am sure we will further cooperate"
The InterPride Association was founded in 1982 in Boston (Massachusetts) as the National Association of gay pride Organizers. It was later upgraded to its current international format. Previous annual conferences took place in the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Iceland and Switzerland.
GayRussia.Ru