Report from ILGA World, Geneva 2006

Aside from the formal Conference events (both the ILGA and the ‘pre-Conference events) there were several aspects of the Conference which were particularly moving. A message of support on behalf of the Dalai Lama; a reception with leading Swiss politicians, including the Leader of the Swiss Parliament who spoke with real warmth about being able to be open about his sexuality and his partner.

Pre Conferences

A number of 'pre-conferences' were arranged ahead of the formal ILGA proceedings.

These were focused on Transgender issues (Mon); Religion (Tues); Men's and Women's Health, Workplace Issues (Wed).

All of the pre-conferences were incredibly challenging and informative.

Trans Issues

We were particularly struck by the wide spread of different experiences across the globe and the different issues faced by different trans communities. For example the need for many trans persons in Latin America to resort to prostitution; the continuing existence of laws which are very restrictive in allowing gender recognition (e.g. Some European legislation requiring sterility or lack of children), and continuing violence against trans people (the latest example being that of Gisberta who was cruelly abused by a number of young boys before being murdered in Portugal in February).

At the same time there were positive examples from a number of countries such as Cuba, Turkey and Australia.

As always with trans issues we are continually being challenged in some of our assumptions and language about gender - we heard for instance of Australian use of the term 'gender affirmation' and the concept of young children 'growing their gender' in early years. We were able to hear about different aspects of medical treatments (delaying puberty and the need to avoid psychiatric diagnosis "Gender Dysphoria" in diagnostic manuals).

Religion

There were three separate tracks - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. We were able to cover the first two. The overall theme which came out was of a growing trend to independent re-evaluation of ancient scriptures in all religions and indeed of this being a similar phenomenon in all of the main religions, and to the value of LGBT faith communities being able to work together.

A key aspect of the Christian track was the recognition of the importance of patriarchy which led to both sexism and homophobia both as a part of the biblical texts and religious practice.

This fact was underscored by a later workshop we attended which carried out a statistical analysis of levels of homophobia in different countries, finding a very clear correlation with indicators for human development (e.g. Education, GDP etc) and for gender equality which appears to bear this out.

The 'religion' track was also important in allowing an insight into deteriorating human rights conditions in different parts of the world - two examples here being Nigeria and Malaysia, where religions have played an important role.

Islam

The focus of this track was on hidjiad which is independent reasoning, and to start off we were given a whirlwind history and theological lesson which was extremely interesting. We were introduced to the stories of Loot, Sodom and Gomorrah and the five cities of the plain and shown physical evidence that homosexuality was common and accepted in ancient times. Hidjiad was demonstrated by showing how different passages of the Quran can be interpreted both positively and negatively. We listened to Muslims from South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pakistan, Malaysia and Tunisia who spoke about the situation for LGBT Muslims in their countries as well as regional Islamic practices. It was alarming to find out that in Malaysia, people are visited by the Moral police. It was very interesting that there was a consensus from the speakers about the role of patriarchy and its link to homophobic interpretations of scriptures.

Women's and Men's Health

Due to the clash with the Workplace Issues pre-conference we were unable to attend this event. We did however ensure that the workshops were alerted to UNISON's 'Not Just a Friend' guidance.

Further conversations around the Conference and published research tended to highlight significant health trends such as higher incidence of smoking, coronary heart disease, depression and suicidal ideation amongst both women and men, as well as a tendency for LGBT populations to either be wary of health providers or to have had poor experiences in the past.

Workplace Issues

A very well attended pre-conference took place on work place issues. Jackie Lewis gave a very lucid and inspiring account of the development of LGBT issues in our own union. All who attended were provided with details of the UNISON website and the LGBT Annual Report. Attention was also drawn to UNISON's work on professional issues (e.g. in healthcare settings).

Other speakers included Hans Engelbert from PSI, Rebecca Sevilla EI (both Labour Internationals that have been proactive in promoting LGBT issues at a global level); a representative from the ILO. Overall the picture was encouraging, however the work in this area is very time consuming and in the context of the ILO difficult, because of the opposition of a number of states and employers in general.

A number of contributors spoke from the perspective of organised LGBT networks in particular workplaces. These took two forms. The first seemed to occur in countries with a different union structures than ours (France and Switzerland appeared to be examples). In France, for instance, there are a large number of different union configurations (as opposed to the British model where all of the unions organise as part of the TUC), union membership is low and all employees vote in elections for union representatives whether or not they are members of a given union. In such situations the LGBT networks appear 'self organised' and equidistant from unions and management.

The second example was closer to home, including IBM and BT where 'diversity networks' were formally instigated by the management and the issues are much more complex and problematic. IBM formally does not recognise trade unions unless obliged to do so. Potentially therefore their diversity networks can be seen as a means of bypassing collective bargaining altogether.

We also heard from Roberto Mendoza who was forced to resign from Coca Cola Femsa in Mexico after coming out. His attempts to get the US headquarters to support him failed. The focus of his campaign was to use the legal process to gain redress, with some initial successes.

UNISON raised questions on whether links were made with trade unions and what work they did in the political human rights arena. The responses were disappointing. Of interest were the employer groups, because it appears that there are many employers including those with UNISON members who are moving to similar models of organising and this can be an attack on collective bargaining.

ILGA World Conference

The main ILGA Conference took place over 5 days. A key feature was extended debate over a large number of proposed constitutional amendments - mostly tidying up exercises (130 in total).

Thanks to the very patient and exhaustive work of Jackie Lewis we managed to work through the majority of the proposed amendments. Significant alterations covered giving a higher profile to trans issues, by establishing a trans secretariat in addition to the already existing women's secretariat (one of the member organisations elected for that purpose). The long name of the organisation was amended to include transgender, transexual and intersex while retaining the short name 'ILGA' and allowing individual regions to alter their name (e.g. ILTGA-LA).

Some of the amendments proved too complex to deal with and were deferred to the next ILGA World Conference (Quebec 2008). These related to reforming the issue of voting rights taking into account gender and gender identity issues.

There were three candidates for the male Secretary General. We discussed the candidatures and felt that Philipp Braun, already a member of the ILGA Europe Board and already active in organising on a world wide level, was the most experienced candidate.

In addition to nominating Philipp we were also able to contribute to his campaign for election by canvassing for support and assisting with organisational issues. We were happy to see that Philipp was elected by a very wide margin, but conveyed to the two unsuccessful candidates our appreciation for their work in ILGA and best wishes for the future.

In particular we expressed our appreciation to Kursad Karamanoglu, former UNISON Lesbian and Gay Officer who stood down as ILGA Secretary General, for all of his contribution to the LGBT cause and his inspiration to many of us in UNISON over the years.

Country Mission

We were able to arrange a meeting with our country mission to raise LGBT human rights issues. These included securing support for a human rights resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity; securing UN consultative status for LGBT organisations such as ILGA - recently denied without even a hearing of the case. We were also able to again raise awareness of the situations arising in Jamaica and Nigeria as well as the denial of freedom of assembly and expression in respect of Pride events (e.g. Moscow, Poland, Latvia).

Moscow Pride

We were able to take part in a noisy demonstration outside the Russian mission with respect of the difficulties facing Moscow Pride, waving the TUC Pride banner.

African Plenary

A speaker from GALZ (Gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe) spoke about the history of LGBT organising in Africa and how they worked with other countries to set up a coalition. GALZ works closely around the African Commission, input into the HIV response, water, sanitation, disability, torture and challenging patriarchy. The comment that women in Africa do not have the integrity of their own body sent a shiver down our spines.

Colleagues from Senegal spoke about how homosexuality is forbidden but that they have managed to integrate LGBT issues into HIV programmes and prevention but with their main objective being to decriminalise homosexuality. Speakers from Changing Attitudes in Nigeria spoke about their better vision where LGBT is visible. They felt that more African LGBT activists should be involved in ILGA and conference planning and that the EU should continue to put pressure on countries to make them change their laws. They requested urgent attention to the Same Sex Union Prohibition Act which is getting expeditious passage, and sought the support of ILGA members in signing a letter to the Nigerian embassy. This was agreed and the UNISON delegates added their names. The letter was hand delivered to the embassy on the final day of conference.

The speaker from Cameroon was the lawyer acting for eleven young men (some as young as 16) who have been imprisoned without trial for the past nine months on charges of homosexual activity. Of the 35 originally arrested, she said the 11 are the ones who could not afford to pay for their release. Cameroon has signed the universal declaration of human rights but under the penal code homosexuality is a crime. However, an act of homosexuality has to be witnessed which was not the case here. Photographs of the men were shown in silence and was humbling.

A lesbian from Uganda was the final speaker who had obviously been through much at the hands of the authorities as she spoke in a matter of fact kind of way over being illegally raided by the police yet again. As a result, she is suing the police for the raid, an illegal search, illegal seizure of documents and the arrest of her guest because she looked like a boy. She said that there is a new war against LGBT people which is rooted in the Anglican church and that in Uganda homosexuals are not considered human. She finished by saying that she will not allow her citizenship to be deprived and will fight all the way.

Women's Secretariat Report

Issues highlighted were:

• Non-discrimination advocacy among media practitioners
• Same sex domestic violence
• Feminist centennial in the Phillipines
• Participation in UNCHR 2005 on multiple discriminations

The new women's secretariat are RSFL Sweden, following the withdrawal of RUNA Peru who have become the interim Trans Secretariat. There were no other candidates.

Personal impressions - Craig

This was my first ILGA event. Lasting over eight days it was a bit like having two National Delegate Conferences one after the other, with most days being from 9am in the morning to 7pm in the evening.

Nevertheless, to network with LGBT campaigners all over the world was a real inspiration. ILGA is a little like the UN of LGBT work. Whether the trans activists in Latin America, the work with young people in Brazil, the difficulties being faced by those organising in Africa or the local activists who welcomed us so warmly the whole experience was completely overwhelming. The most powerful thing for me was meeting with people from Nigeria who are at the cutting edge of an outrageously homophobic law currently going through their Parliament which criminalises same sex marriage as well as any form of LGBT organising (marches, supportive organisations etc).

After all of this I left Geneva totally shattered and exhausted, but very privileged to have been a part of it all and to have shared the experience with such wonderful people on behalf of UNISON.

Personal impressions - Louise

This was my second ILGA world conference and was still a learning curve but I felt more accustomed to procedures and organisation. I found it humbling listening to people's accounts of their struggles and the risk of violence and imprisonment just because they are LGBT. It was encouraging to see an increase in numbers of delegates from African countries. The most important and satisfying aspects were the networking opportunities, solidarity working and the political activism involved when we demonstrated outside the Russian embassy and also the delivery of the letter to the Nigerian embassy. Being able to meet with the FCO attaché and raise our concerns over Nigeria and Jamaica and feel like you are being listened to was also satisfying and this is one of the things that we will most definitely follow up.

ILGA Conference reiterated the high level of political engagement that we are involved in and the necessity for the delegation to have a grounding in international work and UNISON policies and practices and also to have the communication skills, confidence and stamina to network into the early hours of the morning….