Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 18:37:46 GMT From: Mattias Duyves Subject: Europride Exhibition TIMES OF PRIDE and MY FIRST QUEER ATLAS PLEASE CIRCULATE TIMES OF PRIDE Gay & Lesbian Activism In Europe Since the Sixties An exposition by Foundation Album Amsterdam (International Exposition and Information Center for Gay and Lesbian Culture) CALL FOR PREPARATION In June 1969, the Stonewall Inn in New York was raided by the police. For the first time in Northern-American history gay men became active and protested against the harassment of gay men and lesbian women by the authorities. Since then, every year the Stonewall Riots are commemorated on the last saturday of June, alternately called the Christopher Street Day or Pink Saturday. These celebrations, but somewhat later, got also a foothold in Europe. Since the end of the seventies everywhere in Western-Europe this starting point of the American Gay Lib is celebrated. It is disturbing that the European commemoration of a new stage of gay & lesbian emancipation is based on the North-American example. European homosexual rights movements have a much longer tradition and have shown more promising results. The homosexual rights movement began in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, and started to bear fruit from the fifties on in the northwestern parts of Europe. From the sixties on, most European countries abolished their anti-homosexual criminal laws and some instead installed laws that forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. Concerning the social and legal situation, there is no country in Europe that is doing as badly as the USA. The exposition TIMES OF PRIDE wants to draw the attention to the hallmarks of the homosexual rights movements since the Second World War in Europe. They predate in many cases the Stonewall events by some decades (as did the homosexual rights movement in the USA too). We will concentrate specifically on gay & lesbian activism as it developed from the sixties onward. We will concentrate on the earliest outbursts of gay activism which were connected with the students' movements of the late sixties. In no time, everywhere in Western-Europe radical gay groups began to agitate against homosexual discrimination, from London to Copenhagen, from Berlin to Bologna. In some countries, these groups had to face a hostile, closeted homosexual rights movement, as Der Kreis in Switzerland, Arcadie in France, the COC in the Netherlands or the Forbundet/48 in Denmark. And in other countries, such as Germany and Italy, a well organized homosexual rights movement was virtually absent. Lesbian women have been largely absent from the homosexual rightsmovements. From the seventies on they participated in both feminist and gay activism. Lesbians had the choice between or joining gay men in their struggle for homosexual emancipation, or fighting with feminists for women's rights or organizing separate organizations if they could stand neither the sexism of gay males nor the homophobia of feminist straights. In the end, they experimented with all possible combinations, sometimes with surprising results for example, when straight women made being lesbian a political choice against their male oppressors. From the seventies onward, lesbian separatist groups are very active and successful both in the feminist and homosexual movement. TIMES OF PRIDE wants to visualize the rise of gay and lesbian activism since the sixties all over Europe. For this aim we need your help: to get visual material and documents on lesbian & gay activism, as well as the dates of gay & lesbian community events from all over Europe on local, national and international level. We want to present as complete a picture as possible of lesbian & gay activism in Europe since the sixties. Our aim is to present the exposition TIMES OF PRIDE during the Europride in Amsterdam, 15-25 June 1994. Together with the exposition we want to publish an English booklet on the topic of gay & lesbian movement and activism in Europe since the sixties, with a timetable of all relevant dates and a list of relevant movements. In the same period, there will be a conference in Amsterdam on the same topic "Organizing Sexuality: Gay and Lesbian Movements Since the Sixties". Because we strongly rely on your help, please send information and visual or written documentation to one the following addresses: Gert Hekma Jeannette Nijboer Gay & Lesbian Studies Lesbisch Archief Oude Hoogstraat 24 Eerste Helmerstraat 17-1 1012 CE Amsterdam 1054 CX Amsterdam The Netherlands The Netherlands *.31.20.525.2226 (w) *.31.20.618.5879 (w) *.31.20.525.2179 (fax) *.31.20.627.8877 (h) email: A71507GH@HSARA11.BITNET or email: duyves@fsw.ruu.nl