"We´re standing on crossroads and It´s time to look into our work, prioritize and determine future policy" says Anna Pála Sverrisdóttir, chairman of Samtökin '78 (The National Queer Organization of Iceland) but June 1st the organization calls for a national gathering of queer people to "discuss where we stand as an organization, our strategy and issues we need to address in the future".
For 35 years Samtökin '78 have fought hard for the acceptance of LGBT people in Iceland and in those 35 years much has been accomplished. Legal rights have changed dramatically with the 1996 milestone when Parliament passed a law recognising registered partnership between individuals of the same sex and so has general acceptance and attitude towards gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people in Iceland.
In a letter from Samtökin '78 the importance of bringing together a large and diverse group of participants to the meeting is emphasized to ensure that future strategy will take into account the opinions of different groups Samtökin '78 represents.
A diverse group with fresh perspective
"We encourage old and young members to take part as well as everyone else who are interested in issues of the queer society - politicians, academics and queer people, members and non members and lay the foundation of our future work and policies. We heavily emphasize that we need a diverse group of participants and those who have not yet participated in the work of our organisation are especially welcome - we need the fresh perspective as well as experience. It will be no problem at all to show up alone as everybody will get their own little group to work with" says Anna Pála.
The meeting will be held on June 1st 2013 at the Tjarnarsalur hall of the Reykjavík City Hall, in cooperation with the city administration. Registration opens at 13:30, the program starts at 14:00. English speakers will participate at the meeting as well so if you don´t speak Icelandic you can still participate.
Further information about the meeting are to be found at http://samtokin78.is/samtakamatturinn
