The head table at the CUPE Caucus (from left to right: Kathy Macdonald, Kevin Hicks, Claude Genereaux holding our beloved ugly doll, and Michael Butler). The focus of this caucus, as well as an opportunity to get to meet our other CUPE delegates, was to discuss the Action Plan that will be included in the Montreal Declaration. The Action Plan is a broad statement on LGBT workers rights around the world.

Prior to this caucus, the National Pink Triangle Committee had discussed the Action Plan in depth and formulated three possible additions for the conference participants’ consideration. These included asserting sex work is work, promoting human rights legislation and broadening language from same-sex partners to also include family members of LGBT workers. These additions were then discussed at the first Workers Out plenary. First time conference participant, Tara, confidently spoke on the inclusion of sex work in front of the crowd. Faced with the current global situations of conflict and war, the delegates passionately insisted that the Action Plan also include statements of working towards peace on this fragile planet. True signs of solidarity for all people were continually expressed at this Human Rights Conference.

Tara, looking absolutely stunned to see one of my favourite politicians, Svend Robinson at the Workers Out plenary.

We were reminded at the opening dinner that we are participating in the largest LGBT Human Rights conference ever! The Mayor of Montreal, The Quebec Minister of Justice, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, among others, spoke eloquently and passionately about LGBT human rights. The 1,500 people present were humbled by the scope of the work that we’ve been charged to address in our daily lives. Tears were readily shed as we heard of horrific conditions of some of the GLBT people in other countries:

• in over 80 countries homosexual acts are still illegal
• 7 countries still kill people simple for their sexual identity
• many countries forbid sex reassignment surgery for transexuals and/or force intersex people to have surgeries that they do not want.

Tears of joy were shed when hearing of human rights victories. Equity, Equality, Justice, Peace, Love, Fraternity, Dignity, these words and emotions filled us through the day and the evening.

We tumbled into bed, exhausted, after 11 pm. A marathon day, inspiring us to go forward.

Peter can cross off taking his picture with Mark Tewksberry, gold medal Olympic swimmer and co-president of the Out Games. He’s still working on the dinner plans with Liza and has about 327 temporary tattoos left to flog.

So far we have met queer activists from: Indonesia, Barbados, Canada, the Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, Macedonia, Denmark, United States, Australia, Belgium, and New Zealand. So far, there are over 108 countries represented. We are so excited to meet more people today as the second day gets into high gear and workshops begin.

posted by tara

The second day began with a plenary session focusing in on LGBT issues in North America, with other continents being at the centre at subsequent plenaries over the next few days. Two of the speakers addressed the need for LGBT people to reclaim their religious faiths in these times where words like “fundamentalist”, “extremist”, “conservative”, and “radical” almost always precede the words Christian and Muslim. The first gay Anglican Bishop in the United States, Gene Robinson (pictured below) spoke of his necessity to wear a bullet-proof vest under his robes during the ceremony when he was made Bishop. Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam, and former Queer Television host and producer, also spoke of death threats for her coming out as an Islamic lesbian. Both then spoke of the ground swell of change coming through faith groups, and hope for things to come.

Workshops were happening concurrently. Australian presenters spoke on the impact of the election of their Liberal (read: right wing conservative) government which had links to our current situation with the election of Stephen Harper. The Australians advice was to form alliances with as many groups as possible to keep social justice issues moving forward, even when there are set backs.

Members of the Canadian Labour of Congress (CLC) and the three Quebec houses of Labour shared the history of GLBT issues / committees within the Canadian labour movement. They stressed that we have made advances but cannot simply leave progressive policies and laws in a closed file marked “done”. It is only when people fell comfortable to take advantage of these policies that we have succeeded. The challenge never ends.

Eddie Loh, Pink Triangle Foundation and Social Work graduate student, and Angie Umbac, Rainbow Rights Project and Lesbian Advocates Philippines, both from the Philippines spoke on the panel about Malaysia and the Philippines. Eddie argued that “the struggle of Filipino LGBTs to assert their human rights and achieve their full human potential is very much rooted in their socio-politio-economic struggle.” He gave a great overview of many systemic factors (colonization, classism, eliteism, sexism, homophobia, etc.) that affect human rights in the Philippines. For more on LGBT human rights in the Philippines, check out the Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network.

Yukari Iino, a PhD candidate at Josai International University in Japan talked about the politics of Zainichi Korean-Japanese lesbians within the lesbian community in Japan. She looked at narratives about an incident an Asian Lesbian Network conference, where Zainichi lesbians were completely disregarded, and then their disregard was disregarded once again in public discussions in a lesbian newsletter. She made some really powerful connections between race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender. Yukari said that just because someone is a lesbian, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they understand other types of discrimination. Yukari is a pioneer in lesbian studies in Japan. Her article is forthcoming in a Haworth Press book called Lesbians in East Asia.

Alice Knom, a lawyer defending 9 men imprisoned for being gay in Cameroon, was one of the amazing keynote speakers on the plenary session on Africa and the Middle East.

Today we met people from Sri Lanka, Japan, Philippines, Brazil, England, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, as well as our Canadian comrades.

The evening was spent at at solidarity dinner with our brothers and sisters from CUPE, CUPW and the Latin American delegates. A wonderful day!

posted by tara

Day 3 started with a plenary session focusing on Latin America.

Patria Jimenez Florez, the first Mexican Congress member to come out as a lesbian. A very small part of her speech, but a part that left a huge impact on me was her strong views against the the commercialization of pride events. She called for people to be active participants rather than just spectators. She ended her keynote by saying “We are against the systemic negation of human rights, of hatred, and homophobia. We are against war.”

Australian presenters Mark and Craig pose with Doug and Peter and the ugly doll. Mark and Craig did a presentation on the impact of the Howard administration.

The Convention hall in downtown Montreal seats approximately 2,000 delegates, and has been the site of the plenary presentations and the Workers Out caucuses. After three days of discussion, the 400 Worker’s Out delegates came to consensus on the Action Plan which will be part of the Montreal Declaration. The Montreal Declaration will be shared at today’s sessions. Hopefully we’ll be able to post a link for you.

Other highlights to the third day of the conference included:

• hearing Ms Bayer from New Zealand sharing her experiences of being the first trans member of parliament anywhere in this world.
• passionate discussion on GLBT’s role in advocating for world peace, specifically the middle east.
• learning of what it is to be LGBT in China, Pakistan and India
• discovering the way young workers are accepted, or not, in their worksites because of their sexual identity
• the panel on Youth Video OUTreach

Angelo Dunlap, Michelle Lang, Kevin Buttner, the ugly doll, Wayne Hughes and Liv Gjestvag from Youth Video OUTreach in Columbus, Ohio.

This program uses digital media as a medium for youth to tell their own stories and is based on Listen Up! in New York. This panel was the youngest presenting panel at the conference, with the youth presenters ranging in age from 19-22. Liv, the director of this program, described their process as “creating a space where youth could take the reigns” and modeled this at the session by letting the youth lead the workshop. Liv called on adults to “really listen and learn from youth”. The young filmmakers were articulate, honest, brave and creative.

Two of the narratives in the 35 minute video illustrated showing love towards those who are homophobic. I was so impressed at Angelo’s generosity of spirit and heart--he described the love he has for his mother despite her religious fundamentalism and her belief that he will go to hell. A teenage lesbian described walking up to a Christian anti-gay protester and telling him that she loved him. Love is an important message that I learned from these activist-artists.

Doug and Peter also took a stroll up to the new Library in Montreal. Quite fine (but we still like our VPL Central Library!) Another great, but exhausting, day! (Still no sign of Liza, but we are hopeful that we will find her tomorrow. However, we have confirmed a date with kd lang and 30,000 others at the Opening Ceremony tonight.)

posted by tara