The GLIFAA Globe - June 2009

With significant support and encouragement of U.S. Ambassador John Withers and the Embassy PAO, my partner Mindy Michaels and I have been working since March with a small group of Albanian activists, human rights NGOs, and the Dutch Embassy to try and jump start a LGBT movement in Albania, where there has been very little visibility or organized activity to date (no gay bars, cafes). Mindy is fortunately a long-time LGBT activist and former director of the LGBT center at American University. Moreover, due to the discriminatory EFM policy, has no currently paid job, so she has some time and energy to dedicate to the project. The Albanians hold the U.S. in high regard, and so the U.S. Embassy in Albania has a high profile and a definite impact on the Albanian government and public.

The main goals at this point are 1) promote visibility; and 2) create community; and 3) pass an anti-discrimination law that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Activities to date include:

Lectures at major universities. Mindy has a Ph.D in Anthropology, and Albanian universities usually welcome American guest lecturers. The PAO has obtained invitations for Mindy to speak at several universities in Tirana on LGBT-related topics. The PAO has also featured these lectures on the Embassy internet website. See http://tirana.usembassy.gov/may_2009.html
Roundtable discussion at U.S. Embassy. With PAO assistence, we organized a roundtable strategy discussion in April with the U.S. Ambassador, the Public Affairs Officer and FSN staff, Albanian LGBT activists, human rights NGOs, representatives from the Dutch Embassy. The U.S. Ambassador expressed his support, and one activist even came out publicly as a lesbian at the meeting, which is quite rare in Albania.
Facebook/website creation. On April 30, some young Albanians began a new facebook gay straight alliance group for GLBT rights in Albania. Since then, it has gained 275 members, almost entirely Albanian. The discussion forum has been very active, with multiple posts every day. In collaboration with the same group of young Albanians, we obtained the website address, http://www.gayalbania.org, and Mindy is helping a Albanian volunteer web designer develop a functional and informational website with information in Albanian.
University panel discussion with Ambassador. On the occasion of International Day Against Homophobia, the Ambassador participated in a panel discussion, along with Mindy, with nearly 150 Albanian students at the University of Tirana, expressing his support for LGBT rights. His appearance at the event was widely covered by television and print media.
International Day Against Homophobia (May 17) events. In addition to the panel discussion, and in cooperation with the Dutch Embassy, a number of events were organized:

Newspaper editorial from the U.S. Ambassador in Shekulli newspaper on Sunday, May 17.

An interview with Mindy and two gay Albanians (using pseudonyms) in Panorama newspaper on Sunday, May 17.

An interview with the Dutch Ambassador in Panorama on Saturday, May 16.

A story on BBC Albania on gay issues in Albania Wednesday, May 27 or Thursday, May 28. It will also be posted with a story on the BBC Albania website.
on Wednesday, May 20.

30,000 Mania postcards with information about the International Day Against Homophobiadistributed for a two week period (beginning Saturday, May 16) in bars and cafes in Tirana, Durres, Shkoder and Vlore.

An interview with two gay Albanians on a radio program Copyright, which was aired live on Friday, May 22.

An open call to end homophobia and discrimination signed by 24 Albanian NGOs published in a major newspaper.

Homemade posters (made by some of the young people involved with developing a new GLBT organization) that were posted all around the Bllok area on Saturday night, May 16, saying that "Homophobia is Social Disease," and noting that Sunday was the International Day Against Homophobia.

Activities planned for the future include:

Books translated into Albanian. There are no LGBT books available in Albanian. The PAO has indicated that it would support a proposal (through the small grant program) for an NGO to translate two books into Albanian, books that would be appropriate for use in an academic setting. We are in the process of identifying these two books (ideas, anyone???) and working with an NGO to put in a proposal.
Pride events. We would like to organize a public showing of "Milk" in June with introductory remarks by the Ambassador. We are awaiting final approval to obtain the rights to show the movie, and then we hope it can be subtitled in Albanian. We also plan to do a book display at the American corner (thanks for the idea, Rangoon!). We also are planning a road trip with some of the new activists to the Pride in Zagreb.
Regular social events. In progress on an informal basis, but there are plans to start a private facebook group to organize movie showings, bar outings, and beach trips.
Possible reception for LGBT folks and family at AMB residence. The Ambassador has offered, and it may be very helpful to those few parents who know about their LGBT children. It is a bit premature for this, but it was quite generous of him and we will try and organize it a bit later.

We would welcome any other ideas. Also, it would be great if someone were coming to Albania next year when we leave who would be willing to work on these issues. There is so much pent-up energy here for LGBT activism, it is really exciting to be involved at this stage, and the Albanians are so happy I can't even describe it.