From: Eva Isaksson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 15:48:55 +0200 (EET)

ILGA European conference
Greeting at the opening plenary
December 28, 1994

I'm Eva Isaksson, and to be here is a very nostalgic experience for
me.

When I attended the previous ILGA conference in Helsinki, I thought it
would be for the last time. Ten years have passed, and I find myself
here again. There are just a very few familiar faces from those early
days, many more are not here - they are dead.

I was active in ILGA only for a short time during the early 1980's. At
the same time, I was involved with the International Lesbian
Information Service, which started as a part of ILGA. We were much
more European then, only just beginning to work as a real worldwide
organisation.

In Helsinki in 1984, AIDS was the new and mostly unknown threat. Gay
and lesbian organizing in Eastern Europe was just a new and exciting
promise for the international movement. There were many projects that
were new then that have since become solid. When I retired a decade
ago, I had a real sense that the world was changing very fast.

When SETA asked me to write a book about gay and lesbian rights in
Europe last summer, I was reintroduced to the story of the struggle
for our human rights. Reading through source materials was extremely
thrilling. There had been decades of hard work throughout Europe, and
the few years I had been active were just a short period in history.
Slow and conscientious work done by stubborn people had produced
impressive results at long last. Just to read about the history of
Irish law reform was proof enough that there is always hope for
change, no matter how long it takes.

The whole story of social and legal progress during the last 100 years
is a unique tale of adventure, hardship and courage against all odds.
It has become increasingly possible to live and love as full citizens
of society, no longer hidden in a forgotten niche of an indifferent
society that chose to ignore us for so long. And the story is going
on, even here today.

What saddened me as a Finn was how slowly things had been changing
here. When I was a teenage lesbian in the 60's, I was considered a
criminal. Homosexuality became legal in Finland 23 years ago, but
apart from that, very little progress has really taken place. Still,
we have been patient for a long time, and I have no doubt that even
Finland will cease to be the silent backward corner of Europe. 

There's something new right now, as we are starting this conference.
This is the first ILGA conference to make its materials available to
the Internet, the new very quick, real time medium for sharing
information and viewpoints. And it's not only that. During my years on
the Internet, I've met so many new people and felt enriched by such an
amount of gay and lesbian ideas and information that I have never felt
I have really retired from activism at all.

To give just a concrete example: my book about gay and lesbian rights
in Europe is available on the Internet for any interested person to
read. The papers and resolutions produced by this conference are there
too. During this conference, hundreds of people all over the world are
reading about our work and about our decisions at this conference.
This is no small achievement when it happens in Finland, where the
society still wants to keep us invisible and silent. 

I'm very proud to be here today as an Internet activist to help to
spread the word. 

Thank you.

(Note: Special thanks to Terre Poppe, who read this through and
corrected my English, as well as to Lempi who helped me to deliver
the above.)