And it is for them the rainbow-colored flags fluttered in the wind, along the streets and on all our city trams during the festival week. To support diversity, the beauty of being independent to a gender identity or sexual orientation, to strike a blow against oppression and discrimination – Gothenburg celebrated like never before!
The Festival director, Tasso Stafilidis, about the 2011 LGBTQ Festival:
"Here in Gothenburg heteronormative views are obvious but many times worse in a number of other municipalities in the region of Västra Götaland. This is something we have experienced several times in our eagerness to create meeting places and cultural events outside the city of Gothenburg. "LGBT? Nah, we do not have any here in our little community. "Or" Nah, that is something we don’t want here with us.
I think that it is perhaps not surprising that people do not dare come out as LGBT-person. And you stand out so it is visible on the outside, which generates consequences at school, at work, on the bus and in the family, indeed the whole family. I know that an art experience can change, contributing to deeper understanding and greater commitment. I also know how important it is for many to feel connected, to feel seen and get respect. Meeting places created by the arts and cultural events is therefore vital for many of us. Daring to be proud of oneself and for who you are is a dilemma for many but for us LGBT-people it is also a daily struggle in which we break from normativity merely by being who we are. Here, the demands of heteronormativity sit on us as a closed lid over boiling water. I would say the LGBT festival is a ventilator for the hot steam to escape, to be freed. Our task is to take advantage of all the creativity and creates pleasure which arises out of this maze, from this diversity of expression and thoughts. We encourage, prepare a place, coordinates and visibility. We include: It is our strength".
Colombia and Belarus – focus on our LGBTQ Lounge on Järntorget 3!
Civis, Danscentrum Väst and Culture Clinic hosted a LGBTQ-Lounge for three nights during the festival. In our lounge the meeting place was in focus. A selection of queer dance films from around the world was projected on the walls together with two photographic exhibitions; from Colombia on the theme of Peace Culture and Nonviolence with pictures from Chocó and the Meta regions and “He Has A Female Name” of Andrei Liankevich from Belarus. We talk about our mutual work on human rights; Civis in Colombia, Culture Clinic in Eastern Europe. Civis also gave a presentation about the project Entre-Tránsitos in Bogotá which is a collective of transmen working for trans-rights and introduce alternative masculinities.
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