#!/bin/sh cat <../events/stonewall25/RELATED-EVENTS/iglhrc.award From: International Gay Lesbian Human Rights Commission Newsgroups: iglhrc.ern Date: 15 Jun 94 00:13 PDT Subject: NY:HR Activists Win Award (PR) To: Recipients of conference "iglhrc.ern" PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release Contact: Julie Dorf + 415-255-8680 Courageous Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Activists Win Award The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission will honor a lesbian Serb, a gay Colombian and a South African gay rights group in its first ever Felipa da Souza Awards to be presented during the Stonewall 25 celebration in New York in June. The annual award honors two individuals and one organization who haveQat great risk, personal cost or otherwiseQfought for the human rights and freedoms of sexual minorities anywhere in the world. IGLHRC held open nominations and received almost 100 excellent nominations for activists and organizations from more than 30 countries. IGLHRC's Board of Directors and International Advisory BoardQa 30-person body of activists from all over the worldQchose the winners this week. The award is named in honor of Felipa da Souza, a Brazilian woman convicted and tortured by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1591 for having sexual relationships with other women. The award winners include: * ABIGALE, a black lesbian, gay and bisexual rights organization in Cape Town, South Africa. They organized the first gay pride march and film festival in Cape Town in 1993 and provide HIV education for Africans in the townships. They worked in a coalition that gained legal protection for lesbians and gay men in the new South African constitution. * Lepa Mladjenovic, a lesbian feminist activist from Belgrade who co-founded the first Serbian lesbian and gay rights organization, Arkadia. Mladjenovic has been working as an openly lesbian activist in the women's movement and the peace movement throughout the war, specifically working with women and children victims of the war. * Juan Pablo Ordonez, a civil rights attorney from Bogota, Colombia, who has been the target of governmental persecution for being gay and investigating the murders of "disposable persons" including sexual minorities. At great risk he continues to work in Colombia and is founding a new human rights organization there, Proyecto Dignidade, dedicated to exposing violations against the rights of "disposables." "These are the unsung heroes of the human rights movement," said Julie Dorf, Executive Director of IGLHRC. "They have put themselves on the line at great personal risk and achieved results." Ordonez, Mladjenovic and representatives of ABIGALE will be honored in New York City on the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, during a week of events calling for human rights for sexual minorities around the world. "It's fitting that on the anniversary of the Stonewall riot, we will celebrate the people who gave birth to a freedom movement in the United States by honoring the futureUs leaders from other parts of the world," Dorf said. Hundreds of international activists will be present when the first three Felipa de Souza awards are presented on Thursday, June 23rd, 6-8pm at Industria, 775 Washington Street @12th Street. The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission was established in 1990 to focus attention to and fight against human rights abuses based on sexual orientation or HIV status anywhere in the world. Interviews with the award winners and photos are available. HERE