Date: Sat, 7 Jan 1995 14:50:44 -0800 From: Roy Radow Subject: German Group Expelled From ILGA BVH -The German National Gay Association January 4, 1995 ILGA suspends the membership of the gay organization VSG (Munich) ILGA Gambles Away its Political Credibility BVH calls on gay groups to protest! The ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) has once again yielded to political pressure from the right and thereby lost its political credibility. At its Annual Conference at the end of June 1994 in New York, three organizations were expelled from membership as "pedophile" groups. Now, the ILGA Secretariats' Committee (its Executive Board) has suspended the membership of the Munich gay group VSG (Association for Sexual Equality). Its expulsion is to be finalized at the ILGA's 1995 Annual Meeting in Brazil. This decision began with an anonymous denunciation of the VSG that the American Government latched onto in September 1994 and with which it brought about the suspension of ILGA's consultative NGO status at the ECOSOC, an organization within the United Nations. Julie Dorf, Spokesperson for the IGLHRC (International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the current Action Secretariat of the ILGA) was quoted saying to the American gay press that the VSG is a pedophile group. She has since distanced herself from that denunciation and apologized to the VSG. Now the ILGA Secretariats' Committee has adopted the position of the American government. This decision to suspend VSG's ILGA membership is a double outrage: * The ILGA leadership submits anew to political blackmail. * The ILGA Secretariats' Committee disregards the letter and the spirit of the decisions of its Annual Membership Meeting. The New York ILGA Conference did decide that organizations predominantly aimed "to support or promote pedophilia are incompatible with the future development of ILGA." But this resolution does not apply to the VSG, which is one of the oldest and most active of German gay groups and which reported to the ILGA leadership in detail about its various activities. In addition, there is an intra-organizational disgrace: * The ILGA Secretariats' Committee refuses to inform the VSG directly, despite several requests, about the October decision to suspend its membership. Rather, the information was reported in the ILGA Bulletin at the end of December and in an article in the January 1995 London Gay Times. In addition, the ILGA leadership has not honored VSG's request that its prepared statement of October 4 be distributed to ILGA members. In contrast to the VSG, the BVH resigned its ILGA membership already during the last Annual Meeting to demonstrate its vehement opposition to the New York resolutions. Now it turns out that the BVH would have been expelled had it not resigned in protest. The expulsion of the VSG is a blow to the German gay movement as a whole. The BVH calls on all gay groups to declare their solidarity with the VSG. ILGA members should use what influence they have to reinvigorate ILGA with open political discussion and intra-organizational democracy and to reject thought control and arbitrary decision making by its leadership. VSG, Postfach 15 22 08, D-80052 Munchen, Germany Telephone from the USA: 011-49-89-48 60 57 [Burghard Richter] ILGA Administrative Office; 81, rue Marche-au-Charbon, B-1000 Bruxelles, Belgium Telephone/Fax from USA 011-32-2-502 24 71 e-mail addresses: ilga@ub4b.eunet.be (older address); ilga@gn.apc.org (effective 1-1-1995) ILGA Action Secretariat (IGLHRC, USA): iglhrc@gn.apc.org ILGA Action Secretariat (East/Central Europe): slong@osiris.elte.hu ILGA North America: ilgana@aol.com ILGA European working party/Euro-letter: steffen.jensen@uvm.min.dk For the German version of this press release and inquiries in German or English: Wolfram Setz (Munich) Telephone from the USA 011-49-89-286 38 380 Fax from the USA: 011-49-89-28 14 19