On the invitation of the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL), the official Russian LGBT delegation participated in EuroPride (Stockholm, July 25 - August 3, 2008), - reports lgbtnet.ru. From the Russian side in EuroPride events took part the representatives of the Russian LGBT network and it's member organizations: "Vykhod" ("Exit") from Saint-Petersburg, "Radujny Dom" ("Rainbow House", Tyumen) and "Krug-Karelia" ("Karelia-Circle", Petrozavodsk, Karelia).
On July 28 a seminar dedicated to the present-day status of gay, lesbian and transgender people in Russia opened. The issue was presented to the audience by Mr. Igor Petrov - the executive director of the LGBT Network of Russia (Saint-Petersburg) and Mr. Aleksandr Zhdanov - the head of the "Rainbow House" from Tyumen. In particular, Mr. A.Zhdanov threw strong light upon the refusal of Russian officials to register the "Rainbow House" in the list of officially registered organzations. It's worth reminding that this case is on the agenda of the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.
Ms. Gyulnara Sultanova - a representative of the organization "Exit" (Russia), spoke at a seminar "The cooperation between LGBT and non-profit organizations" (Stockholm, July 29). Ms. Anna Kiery, a representative of the "Labrys" (Kyrgyzstan) and Mr. Goran Miletic from Swedish Helsinki Committee took part in this seminar as well too. Ms. Polina Savchenko, one of the representatives of the "Exit" organization, later this day was on air on Swedish Radio. She discussed on live air transmission the situation with human rights in Russia together with her colleagues: Ms. Rimma Sharifullina, a human rights defender from "Petersburgskaya aegida" ("Petersburg's aegis") organization and the General director of "IKEA Russia".
On July 30th, Russians participated in the international meeting, organized by the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Rights. On the first day of August the City Hall of the Swedish capital held a warm City Hall reception in favour of the EuroPride participants. Ms Kristina Axén Olin, ex-Mayor of Stockholm, gave a speech of warm welcome to the guests.
The major and final event of the EuroPride, the pride parade itself took place on the second day of August, please notice, with thirty Russian participants in the avant-garde of the parade flying national and rainbow flags. The audience, on lookers, shouted approval cries such as "Petersburg?! Russia?!" and "Well done! Bravo!!". An interesting fact, during the parade a tourist bus with Russian tourists aboard on it found to be almost in the center of the lines of marching people, and those Russians in the bus also cried shouts of joy and approval in Russian: "Good guys!!", "At long last!!!".
The art show called "The State of Mind" organized by swedish painters Ms. Annika Karlson-Rikson and Ms.Anne-Viola Halberg under the aegis of the EuroPride was free to visit for everyone during all days when Europride was going on. Its visitors had a chance to see photographs and taped interviews of more than forty gays and lesbians from Saint-Petersburg. In forthcoming month (September 2008) that show is to be opened in the Northern Russian capital - Saint-Petersburg.
Translated by Yerdna Bananes (x8x08@bk.ru)