IGLYO AMC 2019 - Helsinki, Finland

IGLYO AMC ‘19 Conference Delegates

Hi there! Spencer here, ShoutOut volunteer and executive committee member. At the beginning of October, I had the wonderful opportunity to join queer youth activists from all over Europe at IGLYO’s Annual Members’ Conference. IGLYO is an organisation of local, regional and national LGBTQI+ European youth organisations which aims to encourage youth activism across the continent in fighting for queer rights. ShoutOut, as a queer charity working with youth, mostly by youth, applied for IGLYO membership earlier this year, which was officially approved at the conference. The Annual Members’ Conference is the member organisations’ opportunity to direct the ongoing work of IGLYO, as well as providing the time and space for activists to network, exchange ideas, share cultures and develop new skills.

This year’s three-day AMC was held in Helsinki, Finland, and hosted by Seta, a national network of LGBTQI+ organisations. 

Finnish Education Minister - Li Andersson

Day One:

The first day of the conference, we gathered in Allianssi, in the city centre. Allianssi is a network of youth community centres working to support the wellbeing of Finnish youth. The first order of business was for IGLYO’s current members to elect new members – ShoutOut included. IGLYO already comprised members from countries with varying degrees of queer tolerance and acceptance. From western states such as Spain and the UK, central ones like Poland and Czechia and the eastern countries of Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Given ShoutOut’s track record of innovative youth education and exponential growth since 2012, our membership was approved unanimously.

Once the formal procedures were out of the way, we were visited by the Finnish Minister for Education, Li Andersson, leader of the Left Alliance, who gave an empowering speech explaining Finland’s recent decision to introduce gender recognition legislation which would bring the country almost in line with Ireland’s own pioneering policies of self-determination. While she admitted that there was still work to be done to include trans minors in legislation, she was confident that organisations such as Seta would help drive home the social change needed for wider LGBTQI+ acceptance in Finland.

The day was capped off by a reception hosted by the mayor’s office of Helsinki in Kaupungintalo, the City Hall.

Day Two:

New Venue – the Porthania building of the University of Helsinki, home for the remainder of the conference. First order of business was for the new board candidates to share their proposed manifestos. Following this, members of IGLYO’s alumni, stretching back to the original founding members of 1984, shared their memories of the organisation, explaining how its remit had evolved from simply serving as a festival for queer youths to meet one another to now being a fully-fledged political organisation with the aim of fostering new queer activists to fight for social change in their respective countries.

The final activity of the day was split into workshops, of which I attended one where we discussed allies’ roles in the furthering of LGBTQI+ rights and acceptance. Two Ukrainian attendees spoke of their work in diversity education training in schools and businesses, similar to ShoutOut’s own work, but of how they had to enter under the guise of general tolerance and acceptance of all people, rather than specifically targeting incidents of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic intolerance.

Amongst other conference delegates in Senate Square

Day Three:

The final day held the most significance for the official running of IGLYO as an organisation. The new board members for the next two years were to be elected, who would carry on the work of the previous board who had organised events and studies such as the Activist Academy, LGBTQI Inclusive Education Index and thematic youth network meetings.

Emotions were also running high as for some participants, the weekend had been a taste of what life could be like if queer people were more accepted in their homelands, and for others like myself, it had been an opportunity to learn the struggle that folks still faced in less-welcoming societies. New friendships had been forged, ideas challenged, and I think everyone felt a renewed sense of determination in continuing to fight for their own, and each other’s, rights.

I am so thankful to IGLYO and ShoutOut for allowing me to participate in such an event, because it was inspiring seeing the activism taking place in each country and was a valuable opportunity for everyone to show one another the work they were doing so that they could possibly influence even more change across Europe.