riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (03/27/85)
Some time back I posted an announcement of "Forumo," an international gay
publication in Esperanto put out by the Ligo de Samseksamaj Geesperantistoj.
Well, a copy of "Forumo" recently passed through my hands, so I thought I'd
mention a bit more about it.
The focus of "Forumo", as you might expect, seems to be an international
perspective on gay rights and culture. The issue I saw included brief news
articles on gay issues translated from various national presses (an article
on gay rights and the U.S. Supreme Court from "Time," for instance),
references to gay matters in the mainstream Esperanto press, an AIDS update,
a bit of news from the British gay bar scene, and a couple of poems. A
great deal of attention was paid to the gay scene in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union, including an article on gay terminology in various Eastern
European languages, an informal report on gay activity at a resort in
Yugoslavia, and the first in a series of excerpts dealing with gays in
Poland from the Austrian book, "Rosa Liebe unterm Roten Stern" ("Pink Love
Under the Red Star"). As in any Esperanto publication, there were a number
of "volas korespondi" ads for pen pals; the majority of these came from
Eastern block countries.
One of the main functions of "Forumo", therefore, appears to be to provide a
bridge between relatively isolated gays in Soviet-bloc Europe and the
relatively open gay scene in the West. Partly so it can achieve this,
"Forumo" is printed in a small format and is just a few pages long, allowing
it to be sent by letter class rather than as a periodical. It also seemed
to be rather circumspect in appearance, not printing anything that could be
called pornography or that would be certain to upset a non-Esperanto-
speaking postal censor.
If any of you are interested in the experiences of gays in Eastern Europe,
"Forumo" seems to be a way to find out more. Subscriptions cost three
British pounds per calendar year (four or five issues) and can be ordered
from the secretary of the LSG:
Mr. Peter A. Danning
G/f, 68, Church Road
Richmond (Sy) TW10 6LN
Great Britain
I have also seen a copy of a similar publication put out by Geja
Emancipi^go, another gay Esperanto organization. It was somewhat less
serious in content, about half of it consisting of sexually explicit
photographs. Peter Danning can probably provide more information if
anyone is interested.
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
--- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally