Click on the above logo to open the InterPride website.
InterPride 2007 Scholarship Report
Brett Hayhoe is the Region 20 representative on the InterPride Board of Directors and the Media and Public Affairs Assistant to the Presidents. Contact him by email here.
In the fall of 1982 representatives from half a dozen US LGBT Pride Event producing organisations gathered in Boston, Massachusetts to network and learn from each other. From that meeting, the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Pride Coordinators was born. Since then, annual conferences have been held in a different city each year, with attendances well over the hundred marks, representing a growing number of world regions each time.
As the movement for equal rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender persons has grown over the years, so too have Pride Events and InterPride. By 1986 the organisation had non-US organisations at the conference and in the first set of by-laws changed the name to the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Pride Coordinators. In the years that followed, other non-US delegates included delegates from Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany. Last year, this increased to include delegates from countries as far away as Sri Lanka and Australia.
In 1997, expanded outreach made the organisation truly global and the conference in New York City was attended by representatives of 73 Pride Organisation from 18 countries. The next year the delegates voted to add Bisexual and Transgender to the name of the organization. At the 1999 conference, in Glasgow, Scotland, the first conference held off the North American Continent, the organisation changed its name to InterPride to consolidate and better reflect its international structure.
The organisation has been recognised at its conferences with addresses by the heads of state in New Zealand and Iceland, not to mention numerous other elected and governmental officials. The membership has shared the joys and pains of the struggle for equality from around the world; from full marriage rights in Canada, Denmark and Spain, to homophobic violence at Pride Events in Eastern Europe. The wide range of recognition and response to LGBT Pride Events demonstrates the necessity for LGBT Pride Event producing organisations and the support and networking that InterPride offers.
Since the early days of the internet, InterPride has posted a Global Calendar of LGBT Pride Events, reproduced in the following pages. Local Pride event organisations submit their information and InterPride posts it as a service to the LGBT Community worldwide. Those organisations which decide to join InterPride receive a link from their listing to their own website as well as the listing in this magazine. Additional benefits for member organisations include discount memberships in the International Festival and Events Association (IFEA) and the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA); along with the many resources available through conferences and our member’s only section of our website.
The Vancouver Pride Society will welcome member organisations and their representatives to Vancouver, British Columbia in October this year (www.interpride08.com for more information). In addition to the Annual World Conferences, there are several regional conferences. Please visit our website at www.interpride.org for more information on these conferences. All conferences are open to everyone, though delegates from InterPride member organisations receive a discount on registration fees.
InterPride chooses an annual theme each year at the world conference. While no member organisation is required to use the theme, it does demonstrate unity for the community around the world. 2008’s theme is Live Love Be. 2009 will welcome the theme Your Rights, Our Rights, Human Rights.
InterPride invites all LGBT Pride Event producing organisations to join us. Whether your organisation produces a series of events each year or just one, and whether attendance is enormous or modest, we believe each organisation has valuable experience and knowledge to share with others. As we are an organization of organisations, there are no individual memberships available, however, we strongly encourage you to volunteer for and/or join your local LGBT Pride Event producing organisation. The individual reward is as great as the community reward. Visit our website via the logo link on the top of this page to find out more, or contact our Board Director for this Region, Brett Hayhoe.
Happy Pride!