From: "Thomas W. Holt Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 12:58:34 EST

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE GAYLESBIAN STUDIES AMSTERDAM JUNE 22-24
1994
                         PLEASE CIRCULATE

Europride 1994 European GayLesbian Studies Conference 

Contents, Programme, Workshops, Time-tables, Sites, Cocktails

EUROPRIDE CONFERENCE
AMSTERDAM JUNE 22-24 1994

Produced by the Gay and Lesbian Studies Departments of the
Universities in the Netherlands

ORGANIZING SEXUALITY: 
GAY AND LESBIAN MOVEMENTS SINCE THE 1960S.

Organizing Sexuality
Andre Krouwel
Department of Politics and Public Administration
Free University of Amsterdam
Koningslaan 31-33
1075 AB Amsterdam
tel. :    Netherlands (31) 20 - 6718543/6189816
fax  :    Netherlands (31) 20 - 6756659
e-mail: [email-masked]
e-mail copies: [email-masked]
Organizing Committee:
Jan Willem Duyvendak (University of Nijmegen)
Gert Hekma (University of Amsterdam)([email-masked])
Anja van Kooten Niekerk (Dutch Association for the Integration
of Homosexuality (NVIH/COC)
Andre Krouwel (Free University Amsterdam)([email-masked])
Judith Schuyf (University of Utrecht)
Renee C. Hoogland (University of Nijmegen)
Dorelies Kraakman (University of Amsterdam)
Theo Sandfort (University of Utrecht)

 Organizing Sexuality: Gay and Lesbian Movements Since the 1960s.

   International Conference in Amsterdam, June 22-24, 1994.

Organizing Sexuality: Gay and Lesbian Movements Since the
1960s is the result of a collaborative effort by the three
departments of Gay and Lesbian Studies in the Netherlands
(Universities of Amsterdam, Nijmegen en Utrecht), the
department of Political Science and Public Administration of
the Free University Amsterdam, the Dutch Association for the
Integration of Homosexuality (COC), and the Europride 1994
Committee. The overall aim of this international conference on
the history and future of gay and lesbian movements is to
provide a platform for a critical and retrospective
examination of developments that have been shaping our
movements in the twenty five years since "Stonewall." While
their histories may go back much further, it is the "new" gay
and lesbian liberation movements as they came into force
during the 1970s and 1980s, that will stand at the centre of
critical debate and scholarly analysis. 
     The conference brings together scholars and social
scientists from a variety of national and cultural
backgrounds: delegates from both Eastern, Middle, and Western
Europe, as well as Euro- and African Americans will join us in
Amsterdam, and we also hope to welcome students from these and
other continents. Different individuals and groups will bring
their different histories to bear on academic practices. The
conference's underlying premise is that such differences,
whether in terms of research experience and/or scholarly
interests, can be bridged, especially since the gay and
lesbian movements form an as yet relatively unexplored field
of academic research. Studies of our common history have
hitherto largely restricted themselves to a particular
geographical area, while comparative surveys and analyses are
virtually non-existent.
     Organizing Sexuality will place developments of and
within gay and lesbian movements in a double perspective. The
aspect of socio-political reform will be related to gay and
lesbian (sub)cultures, while the diverse political, cultural
and economic contexts in which these movements have emerged
will equally be taken into account. 

The conference will be launched on the evening of June 22 with
a panel discussion on the differences and similarities between
Western European and American gay and lesbian movements.
Participants in this opening debate will address the question
of the so-called "Americanization" of "Queerness," placing the
issue of "cultural imperialism" in the contexts of both socio-
political praxis and of critical theory.

Daytime sessions consist in panel discussions running
simultaneously in a number of parallel workshops. A plenary
debate scheduled for the evening of June 23 centres on the
relations between gay male and lesbian(-feminist) movements.
The focus of the concluding plenary session on June 24, is the
potential of gay and lesbian movements in the 1990s. This
closing night we also want to explore possibilities for
concerted political (future) action in an increasingly
fragmented and differentiated "postmodern" world. 

While attending Organizing Sexuality, you will be able to take
part in a great many other activities celebrating Gay
Liberation. A full-fledged Europride festival begins in the
preceding week and, while continuing throughout the
conference, will find its culmination in the Europride Gay
Parade on Saterday, June 25. A huge variety of festive events,
from parties (both mixed and women only), to concerts, special
exhibitions, political debates, city-walks, theatrical
performances, a Gay Sail, a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and
lots more, will underscore Amsterdam's reputation as the truly
thriving Gay Capital of Europe. 

Wednesday June 22 1994

Location:                  De Balie
                  Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
                       1017 RR Amsterdam
                          020-6233673

 "Differences and similarities in developments of the gay and
lesbian movements in 
            Western Europe and the United States."

     Gay and lesbian movements both find their origins and
continue to operate in distinct national, regional, and
historical contexts. This evening we wish to take stock of
developments that have been shaping American and European gay
and lesbian movements in the twenty five years since
"Stonewall." Differences in terms of socio-cultural aims,
historiography, "grassroot" participation, strategies for
political action, organizational structures, (financial)
resources, and their various degrees of "success," will be
subjected to empirical investigation. To what extent can
"internal" differences within the international gay and
lesbian movement be linked to and explained by differences in
the multifaceted "outside" worlds surrounding its various
national strands? 
     Contributors to the debate will not only focus on the
differences and similarities in developments of and within the
gay and lesbian movements in Western Europe versus those in
the United States. They will also address what some consider
to be a general "Americanization" of "Queerness," tackling
this and related questions in terms of socio-political praxis
as well as critical theory.

20.00          Opening and welcome address on
               behalf of the Organizing
               Committee, by Andre Krouwel
               (Department of Political Scien-
               ce, Free University Amsterdam) 

20.15          Introduction: "The Comparative
               Study of Gay and Lesbian Move-
               ments," by Jan Wilem Duyvendak
               (Amsterdam School for Social
               Research/Lesbian and Gay
               Studies, University of
               Nijmegen), author of The Power
               of Politics: New Social
               Movements in an Old Polity,
               France 1965-1989).

          "Lesbian and gay movements are generally regarded as
          either mere cultural phenomena, or as political
          forces. A focus on the politicization of gay and
          lesbian culture from the 1970s through the 1990s
          seems to offer a more productive perspective for
          understanding both the movements' development and
          its contributions to the larger society."

20.30          Keynote address: "Coalition-
               Building as a Queer Strategy of
               the American Gay and Lesbian
               Movement," by Steven Seidman
               (Sociologist), author of
               Romantic Longings and Embattled
               Eros, as well as a great many
               essays on queer politics and
               theory. 

21.15          Coffee-break

21.30          Keynote address: "The European Perspective," by
               Angela Mason (Executive Director of Stonewall
               in the United Kingdom) 

22.15-23.00    General Discussion

                     Thursday June 23 1994

Location:           University of Amsterdam

09.30          Session 1

Themes:
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

11.00          Coffee-break 

11.30          Session 2

Themes
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

13.00          Lunch-break

14.00          Session 3

Themes
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

15.30          Coffee-break Tea-break

16.00          Plenary Session A: Europride or Euroshame?

Voices of protest are being raised against "Europride": the
festival is accused of merely to celebrating gay and lesbian
"liberation" in the capitalist, privileged, and yet homophobic
member states of the European Union, thus excluding the less
privileged gay and lesbian populations of other, especially in
Eastern European countries. The panel will centre debates on
the present and future place of gays and lesbians in post-Cold
War Europe. Is there any "pride" in being a European?

17.00          Reception

Location:                  De Balie
                  Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
                       1017 RR Amsterdam
                          020-6233673

 "Differences and similarities between gay male and lesbian(-
feminist) movements".

This evening the differences and similarities between gay male
and lesbian (feminist) movements will form the focus of our
attention. Ever since the seventies these movements have used
different strategies on the basis of different ideological
points of departure. The uses and misuses of separatism versus
institutional commitment, of integration and assimilation will
be discussed as well as the wider philosophical implications
of the impact of recent phenomena, such as professionalism,
homosexuality as 'lifestyle', the advent of AIDS.

20.00     Introduction "Gay Strategies, lesbian
          strategies, everybody's strategies?", by
          Judith Schuyf (History/Gay and Lesbian
          Studies, University of Utrecht), author of
          "Een stilzwijgende samenzwering. Lesbische
          vrouwen in Nederland 1920-1970."

     "Increasing gay and lesbian visibility is still as
     necessary as ten or twenty years ago. Identity
     politics should be based on the assumption that
     homosexuality in itself represents a radical force
     in society."

20.15     Keynote address: "The Male Perspective,"
          by Jeffrey Weeks (History/ Professor at
          the Faculty of Economics and Social
          Science, University of Bristol), author of
          Sexuality and its Discontents, and a large
          number of other publications on sexual
          politics.

     "Sexual freedom for men might actually have
     increased the sexual subordination of women (...) at
     the heart of the dilemma is the question of how best
     to respond to the ever-growing reality of sexual
     diversity."

21.00     Coffee-break

21.15     Keynote address: "The Female Perspective,"
          by Karin Luetzen (Folklore; research
          affiliation with the Centre for Women's
          Studies Copenhagen), author of Frauen
          lieben Frauen. Freundschaft und Begehren.

22.00     General Discussion

                      Friday June 24 1994

                    University of Amsterdam

09.30          Session 4

Themes
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

11.00          Coffee-break

Themes
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

11.30          Session 5

Themes
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

13.00          Lunch-break

14.00          Session 6

Themes
Movements in different political environments 
Movement and MultiCultural Forms
Movement and AIDS
Repressive Morals and Movements
(Fe)male Movement Movement and Military
Movement,Media and History

15.30          Coffee-break

16.00          Plenary Session B: "Movements in
               a multicultural society."
               Videoconference, an interactive
               debate with gay and lesbian
               scholars in New York (USA).

     Since the second half of the 1980s, multiculturalism has
     become a key-term in both political and theoretical
     discourses dominating the Western world. The concept,
     indeed, continues to sway public debates generally to
     this day. Media-enhanced controversies over the notion of
     political correctness that arose more or less
     simultaneously, may have deeply affected but could not
     prevent an internationally-oriented, and rapidly
     expanding field of gay and lesbian studies to emerge both
     in the United States and in several Western European
     countries. However, whilst theoretical discourse may seem
     to float almost "transnationally," to fulfil the dream of
     a common language at least on the level of academic
     exchange, this should not allow us to forget that such
     notions as multiculturalism and political correctness
     acquire highly divergent meanings depending on the
     various socio-political settings in which they appear.
     Now that most (Western) Europeans and North Americans
     should be fully acquainted with the fact that we all live
     in multicultural societies, it seems time to take stock
     of the specificities of such "multiculturalisms" as exist
     on either side of the Atlantic, and especially to reflect
     upon the different roles of a "global" gay and lesbian
     movement within the particularized socio-cultural
     settings in which it is, by necessity, bound to operate. 

17.00          Reception

Location:                  De Balie
                  Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
                       1017 RR Amsterdam
                          020-6233673

    "Gay and Lesbian movements in the 1990s: A New Stage?"

In the liberal social climate of the Netherlands, many of the
early aims of the gay and lesbian rights movement have been or
are about to be achieved. Homosexual acts have been removed
from Criminal Law, anti-discrimination legislation has been
passed by both Houses of Parliament, openly gay men and
lesbian women are welcome in the Dutch military and within the
police force, even same-sex marriages are on the verge of
becoming officially recognized. Despite such overt "successes"
in the socio-political field, and the increasing
implementation of sexually liberatory rules and norms (some of
which were never desired by gays and lesbians in the first
place!), lesbian and homosexuality continue to be regarded as
fully "naturalized" and/or "privatized" phenomena. This state
of affairs would appear to preclude any further development
and/or celebration of specific sexual cultures and pleasures.
Indeed, since the majority of social institutions continue to
operate as if gay and lesbian lifestyles simply do not exist,
"queer desires" thus largely remain a topic for gossip and
slander. This panel's focus is on possibilities for future
courses of action to further gay and lesbian emancipation. In
a country that prides itself on its high record of achievement
in this respect, we face the task of safeguarding and
maintaining opportunities for public and uninhibited
expressions of sexual and social practices for lesbians and
gays of all stripes and colours.

20.00     Introduction "The future of gay and
          lesbian movement," by Gert Hekma
          (Department of Sociology/Gay and Lesbian
          Studies, University of Amsterdam)

20.15          Members of the panel:

Herman Meijer (openly gay candidate Member of Parliament for
the Dutch Green Party).

     "Because the importance of issues such as equal rights,
     differences between and among different groups of people,
     and freedom of choice in partner/relationships appears to
     be diminishing, the future of gay and lesbian movements
     lies in the promotion of equal opportunities, self-
     stylization, male-male intimacy--perhaps in reciprocity
     to female-female intimacy--to meet a growing demand for a
     nurturing public life and much needed social alliances."

Anja van Kooten Niekerk (executive director Dutch Association
for the Integration of Homosexuality (NIVH/COC).

     "As long as gay and lesbian movements can determine their
     own goals, political actions, their lifestyles and
     concepts of sexualities, there is a future for us. If we
     let governments and mainstream culture define the
     lifetime and targets of our organizations, the future is
     theirs!"

Stephan Sanders (journalist De Volkskrant and VPRO-radio)

     "There is this word we are so eager to use: community,
     gay community. We like its comforting ring of unity and
     togetherness. Since the aids-epidemic it has become clear
     that the link connecting gay people is not so much their
     shared sexuality, but their fear of death. So, what is it
     that makes up this gay community? What is there left to
     celebrate: sexual preferences, lifestyles or funerals?"

21.00          Coffee-break

21.30-22.30    General Discussion with Audience Participation

Programme Participants:
Steenhorst Shertzer Amott Krouwel Duyvendak Kon Wallis Prochazka Long 

Banting Altman Solfrini Kokula Pereira Franssen Kuosmanen Schuele 

Ganzevoort Toth Hoogland Tietz Canning Hark Schirmer Patynama Hekma Mumford

Elling Stein Dudink Hemmings Peters Chedgzoy De Busscher Mendes-Leite 

Halroyd Reisbeck Adam Zwart Neuberg Berends Borghi Fazzini Cassamassima 

Pankratz Schuyf Faury Mercader Veldboer Duyves Soetaert Vorontsov Bravmann
Bemmel Wakeford Peters Bertram Triton   

Participants not yet assigned to a workshop:

Annarita  Hirvonen  Hellinck  Smith Valk
Bischof   Luetzen    Kooistra  Timm  Davis
Frey      Mustola   Oosterhof Halvorsen 
Romke     Ploem     Beusekamp Hart 
Sorainen  Rydstrom  Blob      Seidman
Van der Haak        Sandfort  Luehllen
Nicholson Goldenbeld          Kraakman  
Fletcher  de Weerdt Garnets   Katolin

Workshops
       
1. MOVEMENTS IN DIFFERENT POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS

Serious investigation of the gay and lesbian movement as yet
remains relatively undeveloped. In this workshop we wish to
focus on differences and similarities among gay and lesbian
movements in various national contexts. Paper presenters have
been invited to use a comparative perspective, either by
focusing on various movements within a particular society, or
by comparing diverse movements from an international
perspective. As an additional point of approach, we may want
to examine the influence of the international gay and lesbian
movement on specifically national developments. How do
different strands of gay and lesbian movements relate to both
national and international contexts? 

             2. MOVEMENT AND MULTI-CULTURAL FORMS

The gay and lesbian world harbours many forms of sexual and
social desires and a diversity of identities and non-
identities. In many instances, gay and lesbian movements have
tried to reduce the riches and variety of the gay and lesbian
world and defined rules of political correctness, for example
against lesbian-feminists, pedophiles, sado-masochists,
cruisers, transvestites, or the gay men who wanted to
integrate into the straight world. In this workshop, we want
to explore the pluriformity of the gay and lesbian worlds and
their relevance for gay and lesbian movements and society as a
whole. What will enable the movements to strengthen its inner
variety without loosing its outer effectiveness in pluriform
societies?

                     3. (FE)MALE MOVEMENTS

Over the past twenty five years, gay and lesbian movements
have both shifted their aims and substantially altered their
strategies. Such developments have taken place in the context
of changing political and social structures, as well as
resulted from internal disputes. This workshop will raise the
question as to how larger political transformations generate
new and different(?) gay and lesbian identities; it will
further explore the relations between such "new" identities
and movement-strategies, in an attempt critically to examine
the political implications of new trends in gay and lesbian
"lifestyles."

                     4. MOVEMENT AND AIDS

Since AIDS has fundamentally changed many of our lives,
numorous scholars and social scientist see in AIDS-activism
more than merely the next step in the development of gay and
lesbian movements. In the course of the past decade, the AIDS-
epidemic has given rise to new thematic angles in academic
research, it has forced us to develop new socio-political
strategies, and resulted in novel forms of collective action.
In this workshop we want to discuss this apparent "newness" of
interests and strategies by placing them in a twofold
perspective. First, we wish to explore the influence of the
AIDS-epidemic upon the gay and lesbian movements and our
subcultures. Second, we want to discuss in more detail how
such changes as have come about within the gay and lesbian
worlds have in their turn affected the place of homosexuality
in society at large.

 5. MOVEMENT, MEDIA AND HISTORY

The image of gays and lesbians in both mainstream and
(sub)cultural production
appears to have undergone some drastic changes in the course
of the past decade. In what ways are gay and lesbian
sexualities currently represented in the media and in popular
culture generally? What do such representations tell us about
the place of lesbian and gay sexualities in Western society as
a whole? To what extent are gays and lesbians entering
cyberspace, and in what ways are they using new communication
possibilities--such as e-mail--for purposes of networking and
community-building?

                   6. GEOGRAPHY AND MOVEMENT

Most studies of gay and lesbian movements have thus far almost
exclusively focused on these movements' socio-cultural
histories and political effects. However, gay and lesbian
liberation also entails a struggle for both real and imaginary
space. If gay and lesbian movements seek to have any impact on
the larger social scene, their endeavours should be geared to
gaining visibility within and on the urban landscape in which
they operate. This has, until now, rarely been the case. As an
outstanding aspect of gay and lesbian movements and their
subcultures, the theme of what might be called the "geography
of desire" has received little attention, even within gay and
lesbian studies. In this workshop we want to place this issue
squarely on the agenda as an important topic both for gay and
lesbian socio-political movements and for present and future
research.

               7. THE MOVEMENT AND THE MILITARY

     Over the last several decades, the gay and lesbian rights
movement in the Netherlands - both inside and outside the
armed forces - has been increasingly concerned with the
question of homosexuality and homophobia within the military
apparatus. The Dutch Ministry of Defense recently commissioned
a survey on the incidence of homosexuality in men and women in
the service, and on the ways in which their various working
environments respond to their presence. Special training
courses have been set up to acquaint defence personnel in both
navy, general army, airforce, and the military police, with
the existence of homosexuality as such and to coach their
interaction with their gay and lesbian colleagues. The
problematical aspects of homosexuality in the military have
lately also come prominently to the surface in other Western
European countries and, perhaps especially, in the United
States. By offering an international platform for an exchange
of experiences, this workshop seeks to bring out new
perspectives for gay and lesbian organizations in the
military, in particular for those in countries where
homophobia appears to be most pronounced. 

                   HOMOSEXUALITY AND LABOUR

At the last moment, we received a proposal concerning a
workshop on homosexuality and labour, dealing with questions
like the self-organisation of gays and lesbians on the work-
floor, affirmative action etcetera.
Colleagues interested in these topics are invited to indicate
this to the organizers of the conference, so this workshop can
be included in the programme.

                 Thank you for your attention

                    Consider participation

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