The International Lesbian Information Service (ILIS) was an international organization which aimed at fostering international lesbian organizing. It was started within ILGA in 1980. [1] [2] [3] [4] The following year, at a separate lesbian conference arranged prior to the ILGA Turin conference, lesbian organizations decided that ILIS should become a separate organization. [5] [6]
ILIS arranged eleven international conferences in Europe, [7] and supported lesbian conferences in Latin America and Asia through their regional networks (the Latin America Network and the Asian Lesbian Network).
In Turin in 1981, criticism concerning the lack of visibility of lesbians in the gay movement, as well as the cost of participation for lesbian activist to the ILGA conferences led to the separation of ILIS from ILGA. [8] Paola Bachetta recalls leaving ILGA to form ILIS also in reaction to the lack of inclusivity towards postcolonial issues. Subsequently, the following ILIS conferences included intersectional workshops on racism, lesbophobia and postcolonial issues.
ILIS was represented at the 1985 United Conference on the status of women, as a result of the decision to reach out to non western lesbians. In 1986, the ILIS Geneva conference fundraised money to strive towards the participation of lesbians coming from postcolonial countries. One of the main topic of the conference was "Political Exile for Lesbians of All Countries". The following conferences had to face some criticism about unchallenged assumptions: the fact that the conferences were meant for outed lesbians and did not take into consideration others types of lesbian expressions under oppressive regimes, and the fact that western countries were presented as saviors to third world countries. [8]
The activities seem to have gradually stopped in the late 1990s, with their final newsletter being published in 1998.
The ILIS Secretariat, which also coordinated the publishing of regular newsletters, [9] [10] [11] rotated as follows:
Below are listed the international lesbian conferences organised by ILIS in Europe in conjunction with local lesbian organisations, the presence of ILIS representatives at three UN World Conferences on Women, as well as the Latin American and Asian Lesbian Conferences that were organised either with the help of ILIS or to which ILIS member groups attended:
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) is a LGBTQ+ rights organization.
ILGA-Europe is the European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. It is an advocacy group promoting the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people, at the European level. Its membership comprises more than 500 organisations from throughout Europe and Central Asia. The association enjoys consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council and participatory status at the Council of Europe.
The National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays was the United States' first national organization for African American and Third World gay rights.
Radical lesbianism is a lesbian movement that challenges the status quo of heterosexuality and mainstream feminism. It arose in part because mainstream feminism did not actively include or fight for lesbian rights. The movement was started by lesbian feminist groups in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. A Canadian movement followed in the 1970s, which added momentum. As it continued to gain popularity, radical lesbianism spread throughout Canada, the United States, and France. The French-based movement, Front des Lesbiennes Radicales, or FLR, organized in 1981 under the name Front des Lesbiennes Radicales. Other movements, such as Radicalesbians, have also stemmed off of the larger radical lesbianism movement. In addition to being associated with social movements, radical lesbianism also offers its own ideology, similar to how feminism functions in both capacities.
The Asian Lesbian Network was formed in March 1986 at the International Lesbian Information Service (ILIS) conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where lesbians from Bangladesh, India, the United States, Japan, and Thailand organized workshops during the conference.
The International Intersex Forum is an annual event organised, then later supported, by the ILGA and ILGA-Europe that and organisations from multiple regions of the world, and it is believed to be the first and only such intersex event.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Asia and the Pacific Islands and in the global Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked. Please note: this is a very incomplete timeline, notably lacking LGBTQ-specific items from the 1800s to 1970s, and should not be used as a research resource until additional material is added.
Kenita Placide is a human rights, HIV, and LGBT activist from St. Lucia. They are the founder and Executive Director the Eastern Caribbean Coordinator of Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities (CariFLAGS). Between 2014 and 2016, they served at the Women's Secretariat for the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. They have been on the forefront of bringing LGBT issues into discussion throughout the Anglo-Caribbean and international community.
Shamakami was an early organization of South Asian lesbians and bisexual women based in the United States. They published a newsletter of the same name between June 1990 and February 1997.
Gloria Angélica Careaga Pérez is a Mexican social psychologist and feminist. She has taught at the Faculty of Psychology in the National Autonomous University of Mexico since 1979. She is co-founder of Mexican organization El Closet de Sor Juana and former co-Secretary General of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
"Becoming Visible: The First Black Lesbian Conference" was held at The Women's Building in San Francisco, California, from October 17 to 19, 1980. It has been credited as the first conference for African-American lesbian women.
Dr. Christine Marie-Helene Loudes was a human rights lawyer who worked to achieve social change for justice and equality. She was a noted human rights activist who dedicated much of her academic and professional life to campaigning for gender equality and advocating for women's rights. She was honoured for her work to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and headed Amnesty International's End FGM campaign that led to the establishment of the End FGM European Network. During her career, Dr Loudes worked with ILGA-Europe, the European Institute for Gender Equality and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
The European Lesbian* Conference (EL*C) is an international lesbian-focused seminar and one of the largest to take place. The first event was held in October 2017 at the Brotfabrik in Vienna, Austria.
Lesbians in the Spanish democratic transition period (1975–1982) experienced an increase in civil rights compared to Francoist rule, including the 1978 repeal of a national law criminalizing homosexuality. Following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, the societal attitude towards homosexuals was repressive. The transition brought forth changes but it was a slow process. Homosexuality was illegal under Franco's regime. During the transition, there was an initial sense of liberalization and greater freedom of expression. Societal attitudes towards homosexuality were ignored in the beginning portion of the transition, but there was no recognition of same-sex relations when it came to legal terms. It was not until the late 20th and 21st century that Spain saw significant progress in LGBTQ+ rights. Legal reforms and social movements gradually led to decriminalization of homosexuality, and later the recognition of same-sex marriage.
Eva Isaksson is a Finnish librarian and non-fiction writer, with interests in astronomy and feminism. She was employed at the Helsinki University Observatory from 1981 and became a tenured astronomy librarian in 1998. In 2010, she transferred with the merger of the physics and astronomy departments to the Kumpula Science Library, on the Kumpula Campus. Isaksson and has been involved with the Finnish LGBT and pacifist movements since the 1970s. She produced the Lesbian Information Secretariat Newsletter for the International Lesbian Information Service from 1981 to 1983 and in the 1990s, began to create on-line platforms for lesbians to network. Recognizing the potential of on-line communication she established training programs to teach women at the university how to use computer technology to network with each other and to further their research goals. She was recognized in 1999 with the Maikki Friberg Equality Prize, an award given by the University of Helsinki to recognize persons who have furthered gender equality.
Eliane Morissens was a Belgian teacher and activist. Raised as a feminist, she was active as a trade unionist and socialist. Morissens studied to become a chemical engineer, but was employed as a teacher, as there were few other options for women in her era. She worked her way up to assistant headmistress of a provincial technical college but in 1977 was denied a promotion to become the head of the school. When asked in 1980 to appear on a television broadcast about lesbians, she decided to participate. During the broadcast, she stated that she had been denied the promotion because of her lesbianism. She commented on the irony of the school board being unwilling to put a lesbian in charge of girl students, but having no concern about appointing a man for the post.
Olena Olehivna Shevchenko is a Ukrainian women's and LGBT rights activist. After working as a teacher, she co-founded the NGO Insight in 2007 to advocate for LGBT inclusiveness on feminist platforms. She started annual events including Women's Day March, Transgender Day of Remembrance and the Festival of Equality, to protest against discrimination against women and the LGBT community in Ukraine and in other former Soviet countries. Her opponents have repeatedly attacked her and her events.
