From: rwockner@netcom.com (Rex Wockner) Subject: ILGA IS BROKE (ADVOCATE/WOCKNER) Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 11:55:45 -0700 (PDT) ADVOCATE STORY ON ILGA CRISIS by Rex Wockner Advocate #686 - July 25, 1995 - on newstands now ****************************************** Copyright (c) 1995 Liberation Publications ****************************************** (NOTE: This is the story as it was turned in to the editors by the reporter. The actual published article is a little shorter.) ***** One of the two gay organizations that work exclusively on international issues will cease operations this summer without an infusion of around $30,000 from donors, say its officers. The International Lesbian and Gay Association's crisis can, in large part, be placed at the doorstep of the 1994 Gay Games in New York. During the Stonewall 25 events, famed British actor and activist Sir Ian McKellen performed a one-man show for five nights on Broadway and raised around $80,000 that was to be split between ILGA, Gay Games and England's Stonewall group. The proceeds were turned over to the Gay Games, the Games went bust, and the money was never distributed. In anticipation of the McKellen funds, ILGA last summer had hired its long-overdue first full-time employee. ILGA, based in Brussels, is an 18-year-old federation of more than 300 gay-rights groups from 80 nations. In the beginning, the organization was composed mostly of Europe's large national gay-rights groups. But in the past several years, it has become the key link between activists in Western nations and the growing gay movements in the Third World and the former East Bloc. ILGA's primary activities are its annual world conference (which drew hundreds of delegates to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 18-25), several annual regional conferences, attendance by its leaders at other human-rights events, publication of a quarterly news bulletin, and issuance of action alerts urging members to fax government officials in nations where some serious anti-gay situation has arisen. Of late, ILGA also has worked, with substantial success, to secure gay representation in international bodies such as the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe, Amnesty International and the World Health Organization. In a highly publicized and controversial matter, ILGA achieved consultative status at the U.N. in 1993 but lost it in 1994 after the U.S. right wing orchestrated a scandal about the fact that a few ILGA member organizations do not rigidly oppose all sexual contact between adults and persons under the age-of- consent (which varies from 12 to 21 worldwide). After the scandal broke, ILGA members voted to kick out member group the North American Man/Boy Love Association and two European pedophile organizations, but ILGA was later unable to convince the U.N. that no other ILGA member condoned sex between adults and minors. "The Gay Games went broke and our money went with it," outgoing ILGA Co-Secretary General Hans Hjerpekjon said by telephone from his home in Oslo, Norway. "In addition, our membership is later than usual in paying their fees and we're paying our first full-time employee." ILGA's 1994 financial secretary, Nigel Warner, speaking from London, added: "It is unfortunate that Ian (McKellen) relied on the Gay Games to do the accounting. When they went broke, all his money went to their deficit." But Warner and other ILGA leaders said there are many other reasons for ILGA's financial quagmire, which is as old as the organization itself. "ILGA's needs have never been matched by a stable income source," Warner said. "The budget of 40,000 (British) pounds is only funded by 25,000 pounds of subscriptions. There has always been a structural imbalance and that leads to a yearly crisis." Other factors, Warner said, include: * A new group took over this year as Financial Secretariat (Sweden's national gay-rights group, RFSL) and they did not "raise the alarm" soon enough, * ILGA's Secretariats Committee is now strung out around the globe and it is expensive to bring the secretaries together for meetings, * The U.S. dollar is weak and U.S. donations are thus worth less when converted to European currencies, * And "negative feelings" about the NAMBLA scandal may have caused some members to procrastinate in paying their fees. In 1993, ILGA was rescued from a financial crisis to the tune of $12,000 by Toronto's Pink Triangle Press, which publishes the chain of Xtra! newspapers. That will not happen this year, said Publisher Ken Popert, because ILGA "did something horrifically badly judged in expelling NAMBLA and some other organizations." "The events of the last year made us feel somewhat more objective about the need for ILGA," Popert said. "We're not pleased with the organization but we opted to remain inside it. (The anti-NAMBLA campaign) was a homophobic campaign in disguise. I feel badly for them but they've alienated a lot of organizations that are best-placed to help them." ILGA's employee, Coordinator Andy Quan, who works in the Brussels office, chalked the financial crisis up to "no time to expand the membership because of the distraction of the NAMBLA/U.N. crisis," "the people in charge of finances being new at the game," and "a lack of internal organization." "ILGA has to look at hiring a part-time fundraiser," Quan said. Julie Dorf, executive director of the other international gay group, the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, which serves as ILGA's current Action Secretariat, said ILGA "has never had the leadership or structure for systematic fundraising." "In the past year, there's been really a lack of consistent leadership financially and politically," Dorf said. "At the same time, those same leaders agreed to additional expenses. There were huge rows about the budget but there was never a process where the projected income and expenses were looked at together. When you spend money without having a clear idea of where it's coming from, you have a problem." What will happen if ILGA disappears? The group's leaders agree that gay/lesbian work with other international bodies would suffer dramatically and, as England's Warner put it, "we'd lose a crossroads for the lesbian and gay movement around the world to exchange information, enthusiasm and ideas. That's very important for spreading the movement," he said. Coordinator Quan said "what ILGA really does best is support the movement outside of where there are developed gay and lesbian communities. It's incredibly important for activists in less- developed countries to know there is a network around the world," he said. "It'd be a tragedy if ILGA died and nothing replaced it," said IGLHRC's Dorf. "ILGA has always been a fabulous idea and a very difficult reality to pull off. There will continue to be a need for international activist conferences, for a presence at the U.N., and for a federation of organizations worldwide. Unfortunately, it may be time for ILGA as a structure to let go of a really difficult history." -- end -- Donations (in U.S. dollars, British pounds or Eurocheques) may be sent to ILGA, 81 Kolenmarkt, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium. For more information, phone 011-32-2-502-1471 or e-mail ilga@gn.apc.org