Conference Budapest

In this session, we will hear from Rete Medus3 from Italy who will present their observatory on lesbophobia.

Trigger Warning: Please be mindful there will be discussions about extreme forms of violence from those used as corrective measures on lesbian bodies to lesbophobic murder.

Seeing yourself represented in stories, be they fairytales or press articles, is important for our well-being as lesbians. In this session we discuss constructing narratives of refugee lesbian maternity, the political detention case of Karla and Magda, and also LGBTQI+ representation in French children’s literature.

Want to test working with a fun and creative lesbian* podcast idea as a means of resisting cisheteropatriarchal norms in society? Join our workshop. We envision the session as a sharing space for both beginners, as well as those who have more experience, with a good balance between presentation, exercise and discussion. We want the […]

Presentation of the outcomes of research on solidarity between lesbian-non-binary feminists and trans people in post Yugoslav region and discussion on the experiences and good practices with attendees who engage with the idea of building trans-feminist coalitions.

In a number of European and Central Asian countries there still is a systemic discrimination of disabled persons. What can we, then, say about disabled lesbians? They are discriminated against because they are women, they are lesbians, they are disabled and also they are very often poor. At the workshop we will focus on main […]

Numerous studies, including research conducted by EL*C, have shown that in many countries in Europe and Central Asia, LBQTI women and non-binary persons are, or have been, at the forefront of social and political change, despite their efforts, creativity and activist contributions being too often invisibilised or marginalised. In this panel, the floor is given […]

In this two-part workshop, we play with words surrounding communication strategies for activists and have some dedicated playtime amid an erotic writing circle. Leo Zbanca will guide us through learning about dramatic structure and storytelling tools which help communicate a message. Anna Adam believes that vocabular is politics, words are knives and language is our […]

Together we will make signs for the Budapest Dyke March. Materials will be sourced and provided by Labrisz Lesbian Association.

The anti-gender movement is a highly organised and well-financed movement that acts transnationally in deteriorating women’s rights, LGBTIQ rights and civil society. They use narratives embedded in the language of concerned citizens for the future, the children, and the nation that are much more appealing to the general public than the language of human rights […]

This session aims to showcase how developing international advocacy within the frames of the different UN mechanisms as well as of initiative such as Ilga World LBTIQIA+ Women Steering Committee can serve as a tool for lesbian resistance and countering the hate narrative with legal instruments. The objective will be to get to activists the […]

The workshop will explore the experiences of LBTI women in sport, including bans, discrimination and abuse a LBTI athletes and widespread and systemic lesbophobia. It will consider disruptive approaches to the dominant discourse and create alliances between lesbian and trans and gender diverse communities to fight for truly inclusive sports.

This session is an invitation for bisexual exchange, networking and open dialogue about topics around bisexuality as an interplay between discrimination and activist potential. This workshops allows participants to reflect about bisexuality, definitions, realities and much more in an interactive way.

The time has come to take what belongs to us! Over the past several years EL*C has collecting hard evidence that overwhelmingly shows that the lesbian movement is one of the most underfunded movements globally, but especially in Europe and Central Asia. Due to this, many lesbian organizations have either disappeared, transformed into general LGBTIQ […]

Between bonding exercises, love coaching for lesbians, politics of polyamory and asexuality in an allonormative world, this session focusses on building healthy relationships with yourself and with others weather romantic or aromantic.

The time has come to take what belongs to us! Over the past several years EL*C has collecting hard evidence that overwhelmingly shows that the lesbian movement is one of the most underfunded movements globally, but especially in Europe and Central Asia. Due to this, many lesbian organizations have either disappeared, transformed into general LGBTIQ organizations or are somehow surviving with no money, no staff and no spaces. It is by now more than obvious that the current funding norms, structures and practices favor those groups/organizations that have more power and are as such further perpetuating and strengthening unfair and unbalanced power distributions, both in the wider society and within the LGBTIQ or women’s movements. For a very long time, the donors have been preferring the general over the particular, stronger and more established organizations over the smaller and less capacitated, mainstream and traditional approaches to social change rather than creative and revolutionary approaches and bottom-up approaches, which has left organizations with no funds or with very limited funds. This trend needs to be reversed, and it should be reversed fast. During this workshop EL*C, its member organizations and lesbian organizations from other world regions will be presenting the funding needs and demands of the lesbian movement, as well as our ways of working for the future, that came out of our collective and strategic planning that took place ahead of the Conference.

The climate crisis concerns us all, but we do not all contribute equally to it. And we are not all equally affected by its impacts. In most cases, LBTI women* and people with lower incomes as well as people from the Global South and Global East suffer more from the consequences of the climate crisis. When it comes to eco activism, queer folks have been making significant contributions to the climate justice movement since Rachel Carson, a lesbian, who wrote Silent Spring. In this session, we will create a climate justice toolkit for lesbians.

In our societies, lesbian bodies, sexualities, desires, loves, romantic and erotic relationships, are intrinsically transgressive. Giving in to lesbian desire, allowing ourselves to fully experience it, succumb to it, embrace it, is eminently political and is an act of resistance to the cis-heteronormative imperative. Inspired by the works of Audre Lorde, this discussion seeks to […]

“The journey of becoming a professional in the music sector is a complex one, especially if you are not a cisgender man. This session paints a portrait of the struggled faced by FINTA* people face at every level of the music sector. It will also shine a light on all the warriors leading initiatives in […]

The workshop will deal with topics of difference between aging of biology and aging by culture, both within general and lesbian subculture. We will talk about expectations of older lesbians by our lesbian communities, but also about others expectations influence on our perception on aging. Finally, we will discuss the potential impact of invisibility on […]