In the Life: Ep. 906, "In the Life Goes Global" [repeat]

on this edition of In The Life from Amsterdam to the Philippines from Hong Kong to Brazil join in the life for a special International look at lesbian and gay issues and culture in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael ale lepen Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro James pepper Rick wiland the Collingwood Foundation the Gil Foundation the Snowden Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in Theif members like you welcome to in the life and our first ever International episode hi I'm Katherine Linton the gay rights movement has gained momentum worldwide from a rise in gay activism in developing countries to Progressive new laws being proposed and in some cases passed in the European community on this episode we'll bring you personal stories and some very familiar issues that will shed light on the politics the persecution But ultimately the progress the gay men and lesbians have made around the globe we'll take you to places as different as Brazil Holland Hong Kong France and the Philippines the case of Beth and Vani is the first case ever filed in the Philippines by uh lesbians but we begin with a young gay rights movement on the other side of the globe in July of 199 97 the world watched as Hong Kong was returned to China after 150 years of British rule now while the mainstream press pondered Hong Kong's economic and ideological future the gay press questioned the future of a gay rights movement that was not even a decade old but to understand the direction of this young movement one must first understand the complex relationship between gayman and lesbians and the two strongest forces in China communism and culture in the terms of uh gay people is that so they do not come out they do they do not even let their family know so they will not shame them in a family people don't talk about the don't talk much about the people's you know feeling love or sex when I was 15 I understand myself I'm gay but very hard I can I cannot to contact other gay men or Les men in China because know any information do you do everything for the family even even to sacrifice yourself that's why gay people there tend to get married they're under a fam's pressure especially with this one child population becomes more important to produce and air for the family you know Jenny Lee Gary wo and wanan ha have devoted much of their work to reconciling being gay with the expectations of Chinese culture and communism both of which strongly emphasize Conformity though they have lived most of their lives in China we caught up with them in the United States where they were Freer to speak their minds the Chinese culture does not encourage individualism most people are still very very invisible very very classed people don't have a good understanding of homosexuality the most important issue is now is let people know what is homosexual information education informing Mainland Chinese about homosexuality is is important to Gary woo Who in 1995 was jailed for 13 days after attending meetings where gay issues were discussed they just said I cannot say any about gay and things in China but determined to gather information about gay life for himself and others wo produced the first ever documentary on gays in China called comrades though the film shows evidence of increased meeting places for young gays like a few bars and new western style dance clubs there is still fear as officials across China can arrest homosexuals under the vague charge of hooliganism a catchall term for undesirables people who has Authority they can blackmail you they can arrest you you know some are even being persecuted it so they can do whatever they feel like to do today Gay socializing in bars and Parks seems to be more tolerated but any effort to organize politically is forbidden a gay movement in China is Unthinkable at this time Chinese government is basically very paranoid about any possibility of social unrest so anything they think could be getting out of control they oppose one thing the government in Beijing has opposed since they took power in 1949 is the free flow of information with this in mind about communist China we wondered how gay people in Hong Kong were feeling about the recent takeover and the possibility that progress on their young gay rights movement might be stopped it is only in the 1990s that Hong Kong began to seriously discuss gay topics to date only a handful of gay and lesbian organizations have formed with most of them focusing on social activities AIDS and coming out issues Horizons Rody Shaw is a spokesperson for Horizons one of the most active of these organizations Hong Kong is such a hybrid kind of society because uh there is this influence from Western culture and also this long history of Chinese Traditional Values which has much different being gay is not easy for people in Hong Kong to come to terms with so they have this identity problem we need to develop our own way our own means to um build up our community and eventually let the um let the world know that we are Toni we are we are gays we are lesbians we are bisexual people for gay men and lesbians in Hong Kong the real challenge in letting the world know they're gay is less about government or communism and more about the much smaller world of the family most of the parents will not understand their children having a different sexual orientation which they have never ever uh have been talked about or educated about for the Chinese people they think that to make their parents unhappy or disappoint them is a big scene this is the Chinese culture so so what we would like to do now is to help them to understand that homosexual is not a crime it's not a sh they're not doing anything wrong just help them to um build up their personality their identity first and then we will talk about the rights later in Asian communities I think like family is the most important thing for them you have to be out to your family first before you can protest on the street because the family is always watching you for strong cultural reasons gay and lesbian Chinese around the world all seem to face the same issues the difference in Hong Kong as opposed to Mainland China at least for now is access to information the students can get the information about gay and nence um activities on my magazine and the page is called camp springb and more and more Secondary School students are using internets and emails so this is very easy for them to get more access to this information one thing's clear greater access to information and more open discussion of gay issues will lead to change in Hong Kong and China will be watching uh the whole Handover thing has a lot to do with the stability so I don't think the government would do a lot of suppression of gay groups or anything like that if Hong Kong progresses China will progress too they will influence each other it's interwall situation so I think actually Hong Kong can be a good model for Mainland people you can see that we are now um launching some programs about equal rights for different people with different sexual orientation and I can see more general public have got uh knowledge about gay and lesbian people will this hopeful Outlook from a young a student in Hong Kong ever transferred to Gary woo about his own home city of beijan my mom they very upset and uh she asked me son if you haven't to marry how do you pass your KN in China I answer her so I can find a very good fan we can uh meet family we can live together so uh I will take care of myself family and government's aside what Gary woo and millions of other G and lesbian people want in China and indeed Hong Kong can possibly be found in one small example with yavon and her girlfriend Jackie I'm a little bit different because I live with my girlfriend right now with her parents and her sister and because my girlfriend's parents accept her identities from very young so that's no problem for us and we live a quite happy life Hong Kong was just one of Britain's many possessions as a major colonial power for centuries Britain's influence uence was incredibly far-reaching but in our next segment correspondent Tanya Barfield tells us about an Art Exhibit which portrays how Britain itself was influenced by these International exploits the image of an Anglo-Saxon England devoted to a stiff upper lipped monarchy is slowly giving way to a different reality Britain today is a Multicultural Society with diverse racial and sexual identities transforming the crown a multimedia exhibit by African Asian and Caribbean artists from England spans the years from 1966 to 1996 and it's an exhibit that challenges what it means to be British people have this idea of England as uh the monarchy that was the reason why I used the crown as an icon an element of something that conjures visions of the monarchy because that's what what's most associated in people's minds with England Moray bamp bird through a vast multimedia exhibit centered at the Caribbean Cultural Center the Bronx Museum and the studio Museum in Harlem reminded an American audience of Britain's cultural diversity the iconographies associated with England are not exactly what people think you know they're not like a merchant I Ivory film um it's not just tea and crumpets it has to do with a very vibrant culture British Cuisine has changed the visual arts the Performing Arts literature all of these things have changed with the arrival of people from Africa from the Caribbean from Asia and that's sort of of what I wanted to convey in this show all of the work chosen for the exhibit explore either sexual spiritual or national identity art was really for for a lot of them a forum to look at nationalism you know where is my home you know where do I belong you know is my home in a number of different areas although I might have been born in Britain why is it that I'm questioning whether or not I'm really British while the question of what it means to be British centered mostly on racial identity sexual identity was also an important part of the exhibit it was absolutely necessary to include uh sexuality with all of these discussions about what makes contemporary Britain um what it is today including gay lesbian and transgender images in a show about contemporary Britain is crucial argues openly gave filmmaker Isaac Julian who we caught up with at the film and lecture series entitled color screens programmed in conjunction with transforming the crown well I think it's very interesting that this exibition um transforming the crown has this title because I think in a way a lot of the interventions that lesbians and gays have been making who are part of this diasporic um culture a very at the heart of trying to transform what it means to be British and English zami black lesbian man Royal Kush [ __ ] black lesbian and I think very much when one's making films one really thinks of oneself as being British and black or British Queer and black and that these films are demonstrations of those identities another filmmaker committed to promoting the visibility of gay Asians in Britain is pratiba Palmer there were very few Asian women when I first came out um I actually don't remember seeing any at all but obviously that's changed over the last couple of years especially um I'm delighted to see so many Asian lesbians out on the scene now it it gives us this sort of a face and an identity that um Asian women aren't just stuck at home all day long married or whatever that there are Asian lesbians out there and enjoying themselves whether through the efforts of filmmakers or curators the image of the traditional monarchy is being transformed we're pushing Notions of what it means to be British what it means to be queer what it means to be black we're pushing all those questions and trying to make a far more Multicultural Britain which has sort of very different elements in it which make um a sense of the nation we take you next to the Philippines where a significant lesbian gay movement has emerged over the past 5 years last summer that country hosted its second annual gay pride parade and later this year Manila hosts the Asian Pacific Islander lesbian conference now it may be surpris iing that a country that is traditionally conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic is at the Forefront of this kind of activism particularly lesbian activism but in a country where over half the population lives below the poverty line it's a question of Economics or class issues that clue us into this phenomenon I come from a family of farmers in the north North my family is middle class your mother my mother was just a cook so we belonged in the lower income bracket we spoke to women from different social classes to illustrate the struggles and successes of the emerging lesbian movement in the Philippines my mother's mother was the first woman lawyer to practice in this country my father was I think he was the fourth Son Of The First Filipino optometrist so they were kind of like Pioneers on both sides a Pioneer in her own right today anaa Sarabia is one of the most outspoken lesbian activists in the Philippines 25th year of the lesbian gay movement was celebrated founder and executive director of women's media Circle anaa produces feminist media we produce TV programs radio programs uh we publish books um we have right now um campaign for uh women's empowerment uh young women's empowerment through the media I think being middle class it's still um less heavier less harder for me compared to uh lesbian workers or Gan Enriquez is a single mother and feminist who only 3 years ago came out as a lesbian in late 1996 she help helped organize the first national lesbian rights conference in the Philippines must for middle class women and they we learned this from the consultation that we had during the first national lesbian rights conference so among the professionals what was striking for me was promotion opportunities for employment striking examples at all so it must be because of the fact that they're educated employer um because they dress up well they can present themselves well class um it has power today Jean works as an advocate for women's rights at a local NGO or non-governmental organization well it's kind of easy for me to be out in my work cuz I'm working within the NGO Circle you know although some some men in the in the movement would still be shocked you know stereotyp Jean and anaa may have some access to power but women from the lower classes have fewer options the fact that you are a lesban that already limits your employment opportunities for instance you lower class you security guard factory worker vendor of course when you apply for a corporate job you have to be in total makeup so when I was having a hard time I just applied for a factory job here and they took me up till now I still work there our general manager likes to hire lesbians because she says we don't need to take maternity leave so the factory saves money but in my opinion lesbians can have kids if they wanted to while lesbians in the Philippines may have different experiences according to their class there are two things that unite them the struggle against conservative Church values and the struggle for equality under the law I think one of the uh primary problems of uh lesbians engages in the Philippines is that uh there is no specific um protection given to them since there is no law that specifically um mandates um people uh organizations institutions to respect uh sexual preference or sexual orientation of people then discrimination happens perhaps the most famous case of discrimination based on sexual orientation in the Philippines is the case of Beth Lim and Vani Castro noo in 1994 they were fired from their jobs at a human rights organization for having a lesbian relationship women's leg we were recommended to the women's legal Bureau so they took our case on we talked to the lawyer we saw that we had a case we knew that it was wrong that the termination was illegal the case of Beth and Vani is the first case ever filed in the Philippines by uh lesbians that uh challenges uh dismissal on the ground of lesbianism so from for vanie the cost of fighting back was high her teaching job at a local University was put in Jeopardy I was demoted from being full-time and almost regular back to part-time so I became demoralized because I'd worked there almost 5 years I talked to the university president and he asked me how are you going to face your students now given that my sexual identity had been made public I defended myself saying that my students were okay with it that some already knew what had happened and I explained it to them but it was useless it was like I was forced to resign because why else would they be doing this so Philippines Catholic schools lesbians grade school high school even up to college a Catholic school so indoctrination lesbians grow up thinking that they're sinful that they're doing something immoral affected self-esteem JJ hosf is a sociology professor at the University of the Philippines whose Master's thesis sexual identities and self-images of women loving women is the first study of its kind on lesbians in the Philippines couple interiew they hardly have sex CU every time they feel guilty stat all the whatever their personal struggle lesbians of all backgrounds are coming together to organize for equal rights across this country of more than 7,000 Islands if the outcome of the case is favorable it's not just a victory for us really I guess especially for the lesbian movement in the Philippines I think it'll help in advancing the gay rights movement the emerging gay rights movement in the Philippines the way society looks at us they disregard us you know they call us the third sex they say we're bad they say a lot of things of course we want to defend ourselves we want to change how they look at us we want to stand up for our rights as lesbians Grassroots organizing like we saw in the Philippines is probably the most post productive in creating change but sometimes external pressure is also necessary from Albania to Argentina from Zimbabwe to New Zealand the international gay and lesbian Human Rights Commission works on both local and Global levels to heighten awareness of Human Rights abuses against sexual minorities and to bring these very important issues to the Forefront of the international human rights agenda torture in Colombia imprisonment in Albania forced psychiatric treatment in the United States these are just some of the hundreds of cases that have passed through the eagle herk office is a gay men in Zimbabwe of no place I no voice I no status simply because of my sexual orientation I had been sentenced to an adolescent spent surrounded by white walls and lab coats quite a punishment for a 14-year-old who is really showing the typical signs of growing up gay in a heterosexual Society the Communist era Penal Code condemned homosexuality with 10 years in prison hundreds of person were cut or turned over by informers in present in terrible conditions of violence and persecution there is no safe country for queer people um in every there isn't a country today that doesn't have a very very important and valid struggle that is going on an international Watchdog for the rights of sexual minorities Eagle herk was founded in 1990 its overworked 12 person staff is everywhere at once monitoring and documenting abuses activating its International network of members and lobbying un delegates and government leaders Eagle herk is important to the human rights movement because it is the one international human rights organization that is focused exclusively on ensuring gays and lesbians the basic rights that they are guaranteed under international human rights law Eagle's projects vary from assisting Grassroots organizations around the world to helping persecuted individuals uproot and find safety we certainly prioritize um urgent cases where someone's life is at stake which is why in terms of documentation dissemination we've prioritized uh political assal cases for example the Asylum project supports Asylum claims for people who are experiencing persecution because of their sexual orientation or their HIV status we deal a lot with with emergency situations uh sometimes we receive calls from people who are in detention awaiting deportation we have to mobilize immediately to try to procure that individual an attorney or someone who would take their case recent changes in US immigration law now limit applications for Asylum to within one year from the time of Entry rather than the 10 years the law had previously allowed this presents a huge task for immigration groups to get this information out fast to potential Asylum Seekers of course there are no signs at the airport that say you once you arrive here you can apply for Asylum based on sexual orientation one person who did receive Asylum was chian cuu who was jailed for being gay in his home country of Romania I have come here from Romania to tell this Tribunal about what happened to me and to my lover when we were arrested under article 200 of the Romanian Penal Code which criminalizes sexual relations between persons of the same sex through the Persistence of eagle herk and others the situation in Romania is showing signs of progress just last month Human Rights Watch and and our organization co-published a report on Romania and together did some advocacy in that country and because of the collaboration we were able to meet with the president president of Romania who um announced that he would pardon all of the gay and lesbian prisoners currently in Romania before Eagle herk cases like chian may have fallen through the cracks the kind of documentation work the kind of basic investigative work that eagle herk has done is absolutely essential as a first step toward beginning to bring gays and lesbians from around the world under the protection of international human rights law our message to governments our message to Human Rights organizations our message to funders are almost identical I mean it is about educating that these issues are legitimate human rights issues um looking at some of the subtleties of what that means and and trying to um make sure that it's incorporated into the human rights struggle and that struggle is daunting but Eagle herk also takes time out to honor human rights Heroes through its annual Filipe dzo Awards we started the felipa doosa awards for basically the same reason that we started the organization ation because of all the human rights awards that given are given out in the world none of them really um honor people because of the contributions that they've made towards making the world a safer place for queers this award has a special meaning for me it shows that our work is recognized internationally and that we have friends all over the world it motivates us to work together with people everywhere to create the kind of planet and Societies in which all of us are free to live our lives richly and fruitfully regardless of our sexual orientation race gender or any other status thank you hello hello you want still to come on in the Life spousal rights a chance in France for lesbian and gay couples and gay games 98 athletes prepare for the event of the summer in Amsterdam but first we continue our look at gay life around the globe and our next stop Brazil a country known for Carnival in carnal knowledge with its open expressions of sexuality and seemingly anything goes attitude in fact many people argue that for gay men and lesbians this is the most liberal country in all of South America but Brazil is also a country of contradictions and behind the ostensible openness to sexual diversity lurks a very dark statistic a gay person is murdered every 3 days in Brazil and other forms of hatred can be felt in aspects of daily life in this segment we focus on the real life conditions for Brazil's sexual minorities and on the issues most important to them we begin in the country's largest city sou Paulo I think if you say Brazil is a very gay country it's true if you say Brazil is a very anti-gay country it's true also although there is a growing gay scene in the larger cities Brazilians talk about the lack of a political Movement we don't have a background of like uh civil movement in Brazil at the time you were fighting for um AF African-American rights and Gan lesbian rights and women rights uh we were like fighting against dict ership a brutal military government in the 1960s and70s suppressed any signs of opposition basically they installed censorship all over you know newspapers television and the streets and everything they were torturing like like putting people in jail and torturing and killing them you know by that time that everybody was like silenced I imagine that American have advanced but that it's very connected to a sense of political citizenship which the United States respects a lot for Europe I see it in the same way in Brazil this still doesn't exist the question of citizenship in Brazil is still very weak we have our our uh way of uh being here in Brazil which is funny uh you can do things if you don't tell you should not be talking a lot about what you do uh if you were a gay person you please uh be uh don't have the bad taste of saying it very much but there is one time of year when things usually kept private seem to be celebrated in public every year during the 5 days of Carnival gay men flock to Rio De Janeiro and crossdressing is part of the fun uh yesterday I went to the what we call the concent the there were like tons of transverse Tides like in very you know um visible position you know like and uh close to other women you know so it was I was kind of amazed I didn't I've never realized that before during Carnival people more expressive they're more liberated it's quite common for men in general not just gay men to do drag and have fun in the streets with it it's a game but for lesbians I haven't seen this kind of Liberation we have a three days Carnival you know and the rest of the year you just again be in your place okay and during the carnival even if you are a a straight man a straight person you just can dress as a woman you can uh be a [ __ ] but after the carnival please forget it it's very hypocritical these contradictions in Brazilian culture are brutally evident in the statistics of violence against gay people and transvestites pioneering activist Louise Mt compiles an annual report which says that a gay or transgendered person is murdered every 3 days some think the numbers may be even higher if uh homosexual get killed for instance it's very common his family don't want to go to the police because of not wanting his name to be involved in a gay situation despite these deterrence to being out and being political writers and activists are trying to raise civil rights issues in Brazil Miriam heads a lesbian organization which has published this quarterly magazine for 11 years now here in Brazil the biggest problem for lesbians is isolation the lack of space to meet this is the largest problem loneliness where to meet each other and Nelson as a magazine editor wants to generate a society-wide discussion of gay and lesbian culture and politics the magazine tries to establish this dialogue with the whole society it is quite different from the line of American and European magazines where the journalism is aimed only at the gay community but perhaps the highest profile issues a National Domestic Partnership Bill and homosexuals in the military are being Advanced by a straight congresswoman and an exile after he led an openly gay organization within the Navy Flavio Alves was dismissed after 6 and a half years of service there is a conspiracy of Silence around homosexuality just pronouncing that word promotes debate and pronounce it he did Flavio raised money for this billboard next to a military base that called for gays to enlist fearing for his life Alis sought asylum in the United States and then wrote a book about his experiences I believe that in the US I am safer than Brazil particularly in light of what happened to Carlos zanim Maya a commander who after years of service was discharged from the armed forces and six months later brutally attacked so you cannot say that a person the most sexual here is not in danger he might be but if he's in if he doesn't provoke or he quiet but a guy like Flavio that speaks up against repression he might be in danger yes congresswoman Mart Su has become an unlikely champion of gay rights in Brazil as a psychoanalyst that had the them as patients H and I could see that they didn't want to change their sex orientation they just want to be treated well and then when I decide to become a a feder representative I thought the only motive to be really at the Congress would be to have uh to have the power to pass some loss for affirmative action for women and uh for sexual minorities sucy has been negotiating a bill through Congress that would provide gays and lesbians with many rights of marriage she's marshaled enough support to bring it to a vote in the fall of 1998 well m is my candidate for president you know if she wants but uh and I and I know a lot of people that would support her um you know from the gay and lesbian communities perhaps what will lead towards more rights for gays and lesbians in Brazil is the combination of political activism with the celebration of sexuality expressed each year at carnival Brazilian culture is like um very sexual liberal in in a ways you know it's I think we don't have like the puritanic tradition so we are sort of less repressed sexually and that allows a lot of things to happen from a less organized gay community in South America to one that is more politically active in Europe we take you next to France where last year 300,000 gay men and lesbians took to the streets in a demand for equal rights since then the French government has been considering a progressive domestic partnership law called The Pact of common interest which is a law for everyone but is of particular interest to G and lesbian couples in this segment we look at how this law is uniquely French and why for so many people it is so important here in Paris France a groundbreaking law called the social Union contract or recently renamed The Pact of common interest may actually be voted on and passed by the end of 1998 the social Union contract is a way of Legally recognizing couples that is in between two forms of unions which currently exist in France cohabitation and marriage the original law was presented before the National Assembly in 1992 when France's government was controlled by a left majority last year when the left won back the majority in Parliament France's gay and Progressive communities realized the bill would have another chance at Passage before it was elected the current government took on many issues because they didn't believe they'd actually be elected the PCT for common interest is similar to a marriage contract it includes taxation inheritance Social Security and work benefits the law may or may not give a c to sour the French equivalent of a green card to a foreign partner and it does not include parental rights I don't think the government is ready for the idea of gay marriage most of the politicians who have declared they're in favor of this new law have also come out against the right of gay and lesbian couples to adopt children to fully understand the struggle to pass the pact of common interest one needs to understand French culture Fran's anti-discrimination laws were written and passed only in the last 20 years whether it pertains to race Creed color or gender the traditional notion of the Republic does not recognize difference France is not a country that is strongly homophobic simply a country that doesn't like difference and we are different the French notion of the Republic is that we don't recognize minorities nor any other particularities the French idea of the Republic is that you are French before you are anything else so this law could not be formulated along the lines of the Swedish law or the Norwegian law which are specifically marriage laws for gay people which only address them although the French will not design laws specifically for gay people a strong gay identity has emerged in the last 15 years things have changed a lot we went from having the first gay pride in Paris with only 5 or 600 people to 300,000 during Euro Pride I feel like saying there are more gay people it's not that there were fewer before but as a result of increased tolerance we notice gay people more holding hands in the street there are a lot more bars for example even if there were some before you had to know the address they weren't advertised there were very few magazines even general information for gay people it's becoming more like what I saw in the United States with gay neighborhoods like the marray now where many gay people live whereas before everything was sort of dispersed all throughout Paris it's pretty easy it's not a problem to be open in the streets neighborhood my girlfriend and I hold hands we kiss honestly it's not a problem what's more problematic is my work environment because I work in education I'm not going to be I separate my private life from my professional life but being open is not enough having equal rights and recognition is what many gay men and lesbians here are fighting for being recognized by the state would enable me to have access to certain rights such as the right of transfer for example if my job were to transfer me to another part of the country currently Catherine would not be allowed to be transferred with me me whereas if we're considered a legal couple the way married heterosexuals are she'd be transferred too also I'd like to get married and to be able to officially introduce her to my family as my wife I think it would make it easier for them to understand our relationship rather than seeing it just as a friendship or a fling if tomorrow the contract was passed for gay people I think it would be a step forward because not only gay people would benefit others would benefit too whether you're married to a man or a woman it should be the same for everybody something is changing and that is we are starting to feel strong enough to demand our rights as gay people and we want things to change and we want these changes to be accompanied by law we want established institutions to help and to recognize us and it's in this way that things are changing there's always a certain amount of fear because we have a fascist party here that represents 15% of the electorate and that's enormous so we're saying we can't miss the boat we have to move now because we have to defend our rights and gain even more the paack of common interest has finally made it onto parliament's agenda and with 70% of the French electorate in favor of this new law the chance of its passage remains strong our final story takes us to France's neighbor to the north the Netherlands where gay people already can marry in January Holland implemented a law allowing for same-sex couples to register as spouses in a civil marriage and gay men and lesbians are already eligible to adopt children children there given these developments it seems only fitting that in August Amsterdam will play host to the 1998 gay games the first time the games are ever held in Europe in the Life travel to Holland to speak with both athletes and organizers preparing for this the largest gain lesbian cultural event in the world we expect 200,000 visitors to come so it will be well crowded you know as Amsterdam is a small city of only 720,000 people I'm also excited because students of mine uh going to to uh compete I had never heard about gay games and what it was and uh so first I had to laugh about it and I thought what's that the gay games 1998 will be the biggest Global gay and lesbian event of the 20th century with 30 Sports a huge cultural program and a lot of festivities we are expecting uh 12,500 athletes and 3,000 uh participants in the cultural program one of the participants is swimmer Dave de brown who lives and trains in a city southeast of Amsterdam called utre well utre is a lovely city it's small also with canals and old houses and beautiful buildings I like the city and utre boasts a lesbian and gay Swim Club of over 50 members being member of a gay club has other social aspects and I meet other people we have the same interest I feel comfortable in a regular Club but I think I feel more comfortable in a gay club it's just more fun I try to specialize myself on the 50 m butterfly and the 50 m backstroke I hate the backstroke that's I'm very good in it so I think I have to swim that distance I'm competing in the martial arts division for these gay games in the martial arts division we try to make uh the rules accessible for for everyone for all style all martial arts style I think Amsterdam is regarded as the most tolerant city of Europe and I think it's a good possibility to show that to the world and to show it to to other the gay people that are coming I started teaching classes well I I really feel myself a teacher like five six years now enus toart competed in the last gay games in New York as a black belt step back in a fighting stands begin her teacher is an American turned Dutch citizen Wendy Dragonfire en is that Chief instructor of the ampamp school and I'm the head instructor of all of the schools Wendy serves as this year's co-ord Ator of the martial arts event her passion and commitment comes from her experience at the 1994 gay games in New York when the athletes started marching in it was all very nice fun fun ha and then at the end the team from Saudi Arabia two people completely wrapped up marched in and they W they marched in completely wrapped up because being gay in Saudi Arabia still gets the death penalty and I thought if anyone wonders whether there's still in need for the gay games they should come and see this I'm I'm gay and I like sports so the combination is very logical Trion is my sport you have to do three things swimming running and cycling I swim two times a week in a in in a swim club with students I run two times a week and I cycle two times a week we are here along the marison course it was also used in the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 so about 70 years ago it's a very beautiful course it's got going to the surroundings of Amsterdam you will see everything of when you think about Holland you think about cows windmill you will see them you will have it I like competition I like to compete with other people not to win but just to compete to see how good you are and I like I like being outside sweating in s in the C in addition to sporting events the cultural program directed by Margarita lowers promises to be the most extensive in the history of the gay games what is really unique because it's the first time in history of gay games is that people with a cultural background can become participants whether you're amateur or professional you can take part the emphasis on culture is spelled out in the theme for this year's gay games a theme that shares a connection with one of Amsterdam's most remarkable monuments we have here at in Amsterdam the homo monument and on that Monument is written a sentence of a poem of a quite well-known Dutch poet yakob Israel Dean and one of the sentence in that poem is I have such a a limitless desire for friendship and we gay games Amsterdam has taken friendship as our motto friendship through culture and sports I think people should come to them to be part of this big event to be together to have fun together they will see Holland gay Holland how tolerant it is how you can really live integrated in a gay society and I hope the openness of the Dutch people they they can take home with them for me friendship people together that's skate games from all of us at in the life thank you for watching and we'll see you next time I got all my up are got singing in the life is funded in part by the H van amaran Foundation additional support provided by Michael ale leppin Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro James pepper Rick Wyland the Collingwood Foundation the Gil Foundation the Snowden Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice the gay network gay.com and the annual support of in Theif members like you a