Date: Fri, 17 Feb 95 14:30:00 MET From: REEKIE Alan Fraser Press Release - INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN GAY ASSOCIATION Rio Conference Organizers Get Ready! Organizers of the 17th Annual ILGA World Conference are gearing up for action in Rio do Janeiro, Brazil. Members of the International Lesbian Gay Association's (ILGA) Secretariats' Committee met with the organizing committee on February 4. 1995 in Rio to discuss plans for the conference to be held June 18-25. 1995. This year's conference in Rio will be the first international gay and lesbian event ever organized in South America. It comes at a time when a newly-elected government, pledged to combat human rights abuses and reform the Brazilian constitution will have been in office barely six months. Said John McCarthy, one of the conference organizers, "we believe a well-attended and successful conference will foster unprecedented media attention in Brazil, with echoes throughout Latin America." ILGA's annual conference is one of the organization's main activities. It gives a variety of opportunities to participants from around the world: the opportunity to plot strategies at the international, national and local levels for gay and lesbian rights; workshops and information sessions where participants can share skills and talk about their countries' situations; the opportunity to meet and network with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from every corner of the planet. The conference is open to anyone who is interested in attending. A Latin American Lesbian and Gay Conference is also being planned to take place during this week; lesbians will be making plans for the United Nation's Beijing Conference; workshops are expected on AIDS/HIV activism, transexuality and transvestites, and gay and lesbian international organizing. A range of accomodation is being offered. The conference site will be at the Rio Palace Hotel in Copacabana. It won't be all serious matters at the conference though: cultural and sporting events are being planned including a beach soccer and volleyball tournament, a film festival, a gay erotic art exhibit, musical shows and cabarets. The culmination of the week will be Rio's first ever Gay Pride March with a Samba School Carnival Parade on Copacabana Beach! Conference organizers need your support to make this event a success. But there are worries about attendance. "Conference organizers are contributing both time and money to plan for this event," said Andy Quan, ILGA's coordinator. "We need strong attendance from Europe and North America so that the organizers can break even financially." The international gay and lesbian press and mainstream press are asked to support this event by publicizing and promoting it and we also ask you to send representatives to this historic meeting. Please contact: ILGA - RIO 1995 Committee, Caixa Postal 4305, 20001-970 Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil. Phone: 55 021 322 4150 or fax 55 021 254 6546. E-mail: johnmccarthy@ax.apc.org or Andy Quan, coordinator, ILGA: 81 Kolenmarkt, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium. Phone and Fax: 32-2-502 2471. E-mail: ilga@gn.apc.org