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MAJOR GERMAN PARTICIPATION IN
EQUALITY FORUM PROGRAMS

As The Featured Nation, Germany Sends Diverse Delegation To Philadelphia

With Germany as the Featured Nation, a German presence will be evident at 15 Equality Forum programs. Equality Forum, the premiere annual global gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) forum, runs from Monday, April 28th to Sunday, May 4th in Philadelphia. Led by Klaus Wowereit, the openly gay Lord Mayor of Berlin, a diverse delegation of German politicians, entertainers, business persons and community leaders are participating in Equality Forum.

"Equality Forum examines a global GLBT civil rights movement with Germany as our Featured Nation. Equality Forum offers an international perspective by which we, as Americans, can judge our own civil rights movement," said Equality Forum's Executive Director Malcolm Lazin. "Our programming affords us the opportunity to better understand how legislatively and culturally Germany has emerged as one of the world's most progressive nation on GLBT civil rights."

German participants headline 15 international programs. The keystone program will be From Pink Triangle to Equality on Thursday, May 1 in collaboration with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This program explores the incarceration and extermination of German and Austrian gays in Nazi concentration camps, German's treatment of gays after World War II, to decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969. The panel features Honorable Volker Beck, a member of the Bundestag, the Federal German Parliament, and Munich City Councilman Thomas Niederbuehl. Volker Beck has been a member of the Bundestag since 1994 where he is a spokesperson for the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany. He is also a member of the Nazi Victims Support Center and a spokesperson of the advisory board of the Hessian Hardship Fund for Victims of National Socialist Injustice. He is best known for legislatively championing gay marriage. Since 1996, Thomas Niederbuehl is a City Councilman of Munich, where he represents the local gay and lesbian Pink Party. He is the first and only representative of a gay and lesbian party in a municipal council in Europe.

Thomas Niederbuehl will also be on the International Health Care Panel on Tuesday, April 29 at 7:30 PM. In addition to his work in government, Niederbuehl has been manager of the NGO Munich AIDS Help organization and a national AIDS leader.

Honorable Volker Beck will appear on the International Family Values Panel on Wednesday, April 30 at 9:00 PM. As a ranking official in the Bundestag where he is the First Parliamentarian Director of the Parliamentary Group of Federation 90/The Greens, Beck is the legislative champion of gay marriage.

Olaf Alp, the gay German publisher of Mate and Sergej, will participate in the International Media Panel on Thursday, May 1 at 7:30 PM. This panel looks at ways in which the media perceives, covers and shapes attitudes about the GLBT community. Sergej is a Berlin-based magazine and Mate is a new gay lifestyle magazine available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Klaus Wowereit, the openly gay Lord Mayor of Berlin, will appear on the International Gay and Lesbian Leaders Symposium, aired live on WHYY-FM's Radio Times on Friday, May 2 from 10:00-noon. The discussion will explore Germany's attitude toward gays and lesbians, how it has changed considerably since the days of the Holocaust, and what Americans can learn from this country and its progressive culture of tolerance. Wowereit was elected to Lord Mayor of Berlin in 2001. He previously served in the Berlin Parliament where he was Chair of Berlin's SPD Parliamentary Group. He began his political career as the youngest councilor for Education and Culture in Berlin's Tempelhof district.

Klaus Weinrich, a prominent German film producer, will participate in the International Business Colloquium, an inside look at worklife issues facing United States and German GLBT executives and their opportunities in international business, on Saturday, May at 2:45 PM. Weinrich is a founding member and current president of Voelklinger Kreis, a national professional association of gay business executives.

Thomas Boemkes, Director, European Office, IGLTA, will moderate the panel on GLBT Travel in Germany on Saturday, May 3 at 2:30 PM. He is joined by panelists Daya Holozhauer, the Pride organizer in Cologne; Ricarda Lindner, Marketing Manager of the North American office of the German National Tourist Office; and Ron Cartieri, President of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association.

The weekend fun kicks off with two German cabaret performances on Friday, May 2. Direct from Cologne, Fraulein Piggy and Gene Pascales, the featured duo at EuroPride 2002, present German drag and buoyant comedy at 9:00 PM. Later in the evening, Gay Schwuhplattler, Munich icons, perform traditional Bavarian songs in lederhosen.

Since its founding in 1993, Equality Forum has become the world's largest annual gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) symposium and festival. It has expanded from a three-day conference of 15 regional organizations to a full week of events featuring international, national and regional leaders on a broad range of compelling issues. With 76 programs and social events presented by 95 regional, national and international non-profit organizations, Equality Forum is the most in-depth program of the emergence of a vibrant international GLBT community and its civil rights aspirations.

For more information, visit www.equalityforum.com or call (215) 732-3378.

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