Among the 35,000 plus women gathered in Beijing and Huairou in September 1995, ten were from The Feminist Majority. Here are on-site accounts that Feminist Majority Delegation members posted on The Feminist Majority Foundation Online throughout the conference. |
September 3, 1995 - Miranda Johnson, FMF Special Correspondent
Lesbians Hold Press Conference For The Curious Huairou, China - Over one hundred people crowded into the lesbian tent on Sunday for a press conference on lesbian issues and the Fourth World Conference on Women. The moderator, a lesbian activist from South Africa, explained that the briefing was called to answer numerous questions that had been raised by the press about the lesbian agenda for the official conference as well as the rumors about the negative treatment by the Chinese government of lesbians who have come to the conference.
Although the speakers discussed many of the difficulties they had encountered, they said the tone of the conference was generally positive. According to Julie Dorf, the Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Committee, the lesbian presence and role at the conference is much more official and has been given far greater recognition by the NGO Facilitating committee at this conference than at any of the previous world conferences on women.
The fact that for the first time sexual orientation will be discussed at a UN international conference demonstrates the increasing involvement and power of lesbian rights activists in the UN process. Two hundred NGO's have signed onto a petition to Put Sexuality On The Agenda, which calls for specific discussions of sexual orientation and lesbian rights in the official document.
References to sexual orientation and/or sexual choice are included in four sections of the document, but are currently bracketed. Government delegations will decide at the Conference whether or not this language will be included in the final Platform.
The speakers mentioned two main incidence of mistreatment of lesbians at the conference by the Chinese. The first was the confiscation by China Organizing Committee staff of materials written in Chinese on lesbian organizations. The second allegation was that Chinese security officials were taking pictures of people in the lesbian tent without authorization, even when asked to stop. These incidents were reported to the NGO Facilitating committee, which promised to investigate.
At a public action Tuesday in front of the Global Pavilion lesbians and their supporters will present a list of demands for lesbian rights to NGO's at the Forum and to the governments of the world.
Schedule of Plenaries
Statistics on the Status of Women
Copyright 1995, The Feminist Majority Foundation and New Media Publishing Inc.
