Planned preparatory meetings on the 26th and 27th of January 2010, preceded the main event, with themes directly related to the defence of LGBT rights. They were:
- 1st Forum of Gays, MSM and Trans of Latin America and the Caribbean on HIV/ AIDS, co-ordinated by ASICAL
- 1st Meeting on Homo-Lesbo-Transphobia in Schools, promoted by GALE
- 1st Interpride Regional Conference
- 1st Latin American and Caribbean Seminar of Lesbian and Bisexual Women
- Pre-Conference for Trans People
- Pre-Conference for Young LGBTI People
- Seminar on Homo-Lesbo-Transphobia and Racism
- Pre-Conference: The Executive and LGBTI Public Policy
- Seminar on Legal Advances, Public Policy and Combating Fundamentalism in Latin America
- Pre-Conference: Media and LGBTI
The results of each of the discussions were presented in the final plenary by each group. The seminar on legal advances, and combating fundamentalism in Latin America, for example, brought to light the question of secularity in relation to religious fundamentalism in the region. The debate of this group concluded that it is necessary to transform advocacy and civil society oversight processes, so that they work to guarantee the rights of the LGBTI community in a continuous and effective way, given the way in which religious activists have already mobilised to develop policy knowledge and reforms, which combat homosexuality.
The pre-conference event on Executive and LGBTI Public Policy provided space for the pooling of international, national, state and municipal experiences, with particular emphasis on three Brazilian cases: the creation of the National Co-ordination Group for the Promotion of LGBT Rights, at the federal level (Coordenação Nacional de Promoção dos Direitos de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais); the creation of a state level department which specifically deals with questions to do with sexual diversity in Rio de Janeiro (Superintendência de Direitos Individuais, Coletivos e Difusos); and the Policy Nucleus for Gender, Race, Generation and People with Disabilities (Núcleo de Políticas de Gênero, Raça, Geração e Pessoas com Deficiência) in Santo André, in São Paulo, which also includes LGBT questions, within its ambit. The importance of the monitoring of public budget in LGBT policy delivery was highlighted as something which activists need to be attentive to, and to build up working policy knowledge on. The creation of more spaces of interaction between government and civil society was proposed, to this effect.
Participants of the 1st Latin American and Caribbean Seminar of Lesbian and Bisexual Women, presented a series of demands and deliberations, yielded from the two days of discussions. One of the most important, proposed that we systematise information, research and data, which already exists on lesbian health, in order to encourage the construction of effective public policies in this area. The email list ILGALESLAC was to be created to this effect, which would also function as a tool to strengthen communication between lesbian women in the region, who are connected to ILGA.
Activists also stressed that it is necessary to pay special attention to lesbian and bisexual women that live in rural and peripheral areas, who are commonly forgotten in the few public policies that do exist in the region. Further, participants argued that more importance should be given to violence against lesbians in the presentation of reports to the UN. In a general way, a still evident binary system of gender representation functions to leave these cases invisible in the reports that are sent. Finally, for the next ILGALAC conference, and also, for the upcoming ILGA World Conference, the lesbians recommended that the identity meetings not be scheduled at the same time as the other thematic pre-conference events, so that people would be able to participate in other debates, without having to choose between one or the other.
This was what happened in the Pre-Conference on Media and LGBTIs, which took place without the presence of lesbians and trans people. Of the 25 people present in the room, only one was a woman: G Magazine editor, Ana Fadigas, who is heterosexual. All the other participants were gay men, who related having had more discussion than elaboration of proposals, and, that there was little divergence between media professionals, and activists participating in this area. Activists present agreed that the treatment of LGBTI issues in the press, could be improved and that bias should be avoided. The journalist Ferdinando Martins, who presented the results of the group, highlighted that in the 1st Brazilian National Communication Conference, just 9% of the approved proposals are directly or indirectly related to the demands of movements for sexual and gender identity diversity. The recommendations of the group included a mailing list for journalists that write about sexuality and LGBTI issues, the creation of an LGBTI news agency that can promote media training for NGOs and activists, and the creation of an association of LGBTI communication professionals, which centralises LGBTI materials for journalists.
The 1st Regional Conference of Interpride, called attention to the difficulties in organisation and financing of LGBTI parades in the region and proposed the creation of a working group linked to ABGLT (Associação Brasileira de Gays, Lésbicas, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transsexuais) with representatives from Paraguay and Curaçao, to create space for the exchange of information and best practice, in order to facilitate the production of pride events. The Pre-Conference on Homo-Lesbo-Transphobia and Racism related that difficulties in discussing and promoting combined actions on homophobia and racism is not only a problem in Brazil, but in a range of countries in the region. Two conclusions of this pre-conference event were highlighted: that the activists present carry this debate forward in all the political spaces in which they participate, and that ABGLT takes up a commitment to put the debate about racism on the ILGA agenda.
The 1st Meeting on Homo-Lesbo-Transphobia in Schools, organised by GALE, outlined the need for diversity training for administrative and teaching staff in schools, as well as projects which create better links between families and schools, so as to work to reduce discrimination and violence against LGBTI children. According to trans activist Lukas Barredo, who presented the group’s conclusions, if we could work these two spaces of society together, it would be possible to achieve the kinds of socio-cultural changes necessary to confront LGBTI discrimination. “We need to remember that the public school is a secular space, in which religious symbols and representations are inappropriate. School directors need to make clear that the school is not an extension of the home, of family culture or religion”. Further, the participants of the GALE meeting strongly recommended, that “corrective” surgeries on babies who are born intersex are immediately suspended, as well as support for the Campaign for the depathologisation of transexuality and intersexuality. It is therefore important to mobilise financial and human resources to effect these initiatives, to strengthen existent leadership structures, and to promote the development of new ones.