As we are sitting here, waiting for everyone to sit in their places, excitement is unbelievable. The theater is almost full and you can almost hear all the heartbeats.
And then at 6:12 exactly, total silence. Everyone is watching the book's teaser.
At the end when they say "wisil l bareed... wa akhiran" Everyone claps , nadz on stage, again more clapping that wouldn't allow Nadine to start talking.
One thing is obvious, Nadine can hardly speak.
Why they wrote this book? Because there are programs like "a7mar bl khat l 3areed", because people look at
If you look at elections you will find is stupid, filled with old men that dont look like us! (applause)
Why we want to launch this book? To change the elections, to change the political cast so that they look at us.
The revolution...
The revolution has started through us.
We want to gather all the gay individuals so they become a political force.

And now a word from the Heinrich Boel... What's interesting is that, according to heinrich boell, this is one of the biggest project funded by heinrich boell so far. As a women's rights' project.

And now, to great applause Nadine presents Lina, who has accepted to read the stories in English.
And now... Bareed mista3jil!

A multi-national Baltic Pride organized in Riga, Latvia. The event was organized by Latvian organization Mozaika, the Lithuanian Gay League, and Estonian Gay Youth, in spite of movements to Ban it and a simultaneous anti-gay protest.
>Baltic Pride is a new concept in the world of LGBT activism, whether on the organizational level or the date chosen for the Baltic "pride".The event took place from the 14th to the 17th on May 2009, which coincides with the week of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) whereas Pride weeks usually take place in the month of June.

But the choice of date was not the only unusual thing about the Baltic Pride. The event was not just a national event. It was organized by a result of the cooperation between three Baltic nations - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - the deal being that for the upcoming three years Baltic Pride will be organized in one of the Baltic countries mentioned above.

This year the event was organized in Riga, Latvia. Having acquired permission from Riga City Council – Commission on Meetings, Marches and Demonstrations - on May 8, organizers started preparations, established their website (www.balticpride.eu) and started spreading the word.
On the 13th of May however, a majority of Riga’s City Council members signed an open letter to the Executive Director of the city council to revoke the permission and threatening to overrule the decision through voting.

The European legislation protects individuals' and groups' right to assembly and expression of identity. Human rights and the Lebanese law, in theory fulfill the same role. So building on that right, the organizers refused to give in to the decision and made an injunction to the court and were granted a hearing on Friday at the Municipal Court overturning the decision to ban the march.

In parallel, Baltic Pride mobilized regional and international media and authorities to pressure the Riga City Council. Amnesty International (has covered the event when it was threatened, banned then when it got the green light and finally the event course), Ilga-Europe )Covered the whole event extensively), The Baltic Course (with one article)etc.

Ilke Jaspers is a young Belgian LGBTQ activist that has recently moved to Estonia to dedicate the next couple of years to LGBTQ activism. Building on a friendship that was born on Berlin Pride 2008, I asked Ilke about Baltic Pride and her feelings about it. About the legal victory she said “this could only happen because it was allowed in the end to march”.

But the march itself was a challenge with homophobes rallying for a counter march to, but the Police was deployed in force and prevented any incident. The issue was that the Riga City Council argued that it would not be safe to allow such a demonstration, “it [police protection] was needed, the event and march ended being totally safe but not because there weren’t people around us who were aggressive. The opposite is true, it was full of anti-protesters shouting, giving us the finger, showing those weird signs like “gay =AIDS” and the “more gays, the less Latvians”” said Ilke.

In the end, if we were to take any lesson from the Baltic Pride's success then that lesson would be "networking, lobbying and your rights". Baltic Pride is the little baby of a networking effort between three Baltic countries. It was protected by the strong lobbying with several international human rights and LGBTQ rights organization. And last but not least, Baltic Pride had the right to exist and they refused to give up that right.

As for the future, it seems bright according to Ilke “I am only hopeful for the future, I sincerely believe it will get better every year”. In 2010, Baltic Pride will be in Vilnius, Lithuania and 2011 in Tartu, Estonia. Congratulations to the Baltic Pride organizers.

Pazuzu

Today is IDAHO, the international day against homophobia 2009. Today is the day we commemorate the victims of homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia in general. Today is the day we remember that we are oppressed.
Not that we are ever granted the luxury of forgetting that we are opressed, not that we are ever granted the pleasure of not being a prosecuted minority. No, ya reit. In fact what happens is that we try to ignore it most of the time, we close ourselves up in our community that we forget the pressure, or at least pretend to forget it. But then life bites us in the ass and we are reminded that we are not meant to exist. It is just enough to take a quick look at the world around us to remember where we belong.

Go to California where Harvey Milk was murdered over 2 decades ago, California, the GAY CAPITAL of the world and look at the prop 8. Look at A7mar bl Khat l 3areed. Look at the beautiful initiative of the Baltic Pride and how it was being sabotaged. Look back at Ebru's murder and finally the barbaric attack on gay men in Sassine.

You look at all that and you think to yourself: What the hell are we fighting for? It's feels overwhelming sometimes that we would have to fight this much for the simplest of rights, that on may 2009, homophobia is still the norm and we are still the criminals just because we are true to ourselves. May 2009 and we are still struggling to fight homophobia, shameful don't you think?

But then again, if you look closely at our tiny little world there is so much more than the homophobia, to every act of homophobia there is and will always be even greater acts of LGBT resistance, to every aggression there will be reactions.
Afterall, they killed Harvey Milk but soon Milk will take over the 22nd of May, it will be the "Harvey Milk Day". Prop8 may have passed but there will always people rebels like Melissa Etheridge that will put her money where her mouth is and that knows what she is giving to society. Yimkin there will always be programs like A7mar bil Khat and there will always be violence, because they just don't understand us, but there will always be demonstrations to tell them that we are willing to be peaceful but we will not be passive!

Pazuzu