Gay Homeland Foundation
General Assembly on 7. July 2007, 8:00 - 10:15 a.m.
Cologne, Germany
-- Meeting location: RUBICON (Rubensstr. 8 - 10) --
PROTOCOLL
(abriged public version, full report will be sent to members after the financial report is checked)
Beginning: 8:00 a.m. local time
1: Welcome
Present members: Tamara, Viktor
Received absentee ballots as on 6th July 2007: 1 (one).
2: Formalities (quorum call, minutes, financial auditor)
1) In accordance with § 9 of the Statutes, the Executive Committee on 26 July summoned for the General Assembly to take place on 7 July 2007 at 8:00 a.m. (local time) in Cologne, Germany. The announcement was sent to all members by the means of e-mail and announced both in forum and on the official website’s front page. According to § 9 (4b) of the Statutes, the Assembly can pass valid resolutions. The range of issues shall be limited to those announced in advance.
2) Viktor determined to make the minutes, Tamara determined to make the financial audit for 2006.
3: Short introduction into Gay Nationalism by Viktor
4: Report of the Executive Committee on activities 2005 - 2007 (first half of the year)
1) 2005: Website in English, German and Russian language (first gayrepublic.org, then gayhomeland.org), Forum on Gay Nationalism (forum.gayrepublic.org);
2) Wikipedia-article on Gay Nationalism (in English and in German);
3) 2006-2007: Gay News Portal & general Forum (gayrepublic.org).
4) Stamps commemorating Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs and Harvey Milk.
5) 2006-2007: Nigeria Campaign (against a proposed anti-Gay Bill suggesting 5 years of imprisonment for performing same-sex marriages, councelling Gay people, opening Gay bars or distributing “homosexual propaganda”):
a) Letters to Nigeria’s House Committees on “Women Affairs and Youth”, “Human Rights”, “Justice”.
b) Letter to the German Foreign Office (answer received), Letter to Volker Beck (Gay Member of Bundestag);
c) Press release on attempted genocide on Gays in Nigeria, some press coverage achieved;
d) End of campaign satisfactory, the Bill technically dead at the end of legislative session.
6) 2006: Mediation between pro-pride and anti-pride faction in Russian Gay community, pressure on anti-pride groups.
7) 2005: Poland Campaign on Warsaw Pride cancellation: letters to Polish embassy, responsible City Court and the Police.
8) 2006: Belarus Campaign on Cancellation of GLBT Culture festival: Letters to the embassy and to Minister of Interior.
9) 2006: Donation to PGLO (40,- EUR ) for life support of a Gay refugee from Iran in Turkey.
10) 2006-2007: Local activities in Cologne aimed at establishing good relationships with existing local Gay institutions (help with websites for “Soyuz/LSVD” and “Mersi”; informal cooperation with “Centrum Schwule Geschichte” and the migrant’s group “baraka”).
11) 2005-2007: study of Gay Nationalism and International Law, collecting of literature, working on possible strategies for establishing a Gay State. In particular, literature about Order of Malta have been analized and this organization considered a usefull precedence for establishing of a non-territorial souvereign entity (a so-called “atypical subject of international law”). Such an entity can then rent/buy territory on conditions of exterritoriality.
12) 2007: Flyer distribution on Gay Pride events in Duesseldorf (16.-17. June 2007) and in Cologne (6.-8. July 2007).
5: Financial Report 2006
The detailed report is attched at the end of the Protocoll. Brief summary:
Received moneys:
139,09 EUR in membership fees;
44,00 EUR in donations;
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183,09 EUR
Spent moneys:
100,09 EUR for domains and webspace;
15,00 EUR for post box in Cologne;
27,00 EUR for Ulrichs/Milk stamps printing;
40,00 EUR for PGLO (donation);
0,76 EUR for Paypal fees;
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182,85 EUR
All bills for 2006 were paid, but some members failed to pay their membership dues, thus we have still 48,00 EUR to receive from them.
Transfer into the year 2007 as by the 31. December 2006:
Paypal account: EUR 0,24
Cash Box: EUR 0,00
Receivables: EUR 48,00
Payables: EUR 0,00
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EUR 48,24
6: Debate on scheduled activities and our strategic goals
Local activities:
1) In work: Demo on 19 July 2007 to commemorate Gay and Lesbian Victims of the Ayatollah regime in Iran;
2) In work: Small multi-lingual LGBT library in Cologne in cooperation with baraka;
3) Local presence can be more easily established by seeking cooperation with other groups in organnizing events which are too difficult or too risky to launch for one organization alone. We can offer lectures on Gay history or on Gay Nationalism to enrich program of local groups. Direct contact to Gay folks is encouraged, but should be in first place to inform them of our movement, not pressure them to join the organization.
Short-term goals:
1) Manifesto (urgently required);
2) Memorandum for international LGBT organizations, suggesting a refugee settlement under Gay administration;
3) Reader on Gay Nationalism (Denneny, Burroughs, Hay, Koslik etc), non-exclusive copyrights (!!!);
4) Website needs a re-work, separation of content from layout, plus basic info in Spanish, Portuguise and further languages;
5) Translation of the Manifest, the Reader and our brochure into further languages (German, Spanish, Russian etc);
6) Brochure explaining our goals (A5, 28-32 pages);
7) The “Gay Republic Daily” portal needs contributions in English;
8) Jounal, to appear at least 2 times in year (PDF for download, in print form via Lulu.com);
9) Translations of the Reader and our Brochure into additional languages (German, Spanish, Russian, Farsi etc.);
10) Drafts for establishing the legal system of the (at first) non-territorial souvereign entity oriented on precedence cause of the Order of Malta; achieving an extended expert opinion by a recognized scholar of international law;
11) Registration in Cologne, ILGA membership;
12) Detailed presentation of our project to ILGA, other international LGBT organizations.
Middle-term strategic goals in discussion:
1) Inform as much of the general Gay population as possible of our project, establish local grass-root presence;
2) Convince Gay activists of necessity and feasibility of establishing a Gay State as (at first) non-territorial souvereign entity; transformation of an existing LGBT-organization towards such an entity, or new-establishing by like-minded activists;
3) Negotiations with friendly governments on Gay refugees;
4) Realization of at least one self-sufficient settlement project;
5) Acquisition of nearby real estate, network of businesses employing Gay refugees;
6) Network of agencies (e.g.in Turkey, Ukraina, India) to re-direct Gay refugees to the Gay-administrated settlement.
Long-term strategic goals in discussion:
1) Acquisition of a territory (20 - 100 km2) on conditions of exterritoriality, contract over 100-150 years (or unlimited);
2) City-State on this area; foreign relations and defence shall be responsibility of the previously established non-territorial Gay souvereign entity;
3) Take over permanent responsibility upon some area (not the one already contracted above) when opportunity turns up.
The Executive Committee, in close cooperation with the membership, shall undertake the necessary steps.
7: Elections to the Court of Arbitration
Alltogether, three ballots were submitted and considered at the time of the conference. Ron Bila is elected with 2/3 majority to the office of an arbitrator on the Court of Arbitration in accordance with § 11 of Statutes. The appointment to Court of Arbitration shall last untill recalled.
8: Discharge of the old Executive Committee
The old Executive Committee in its entirety is discharged.
9: Elections to the new Executive Committee
Alltogether, three ballots were submitted and considered at the time of the conference.
Peter Weeren is elected by majority of votes to the Executive Committee in accordance with § 10 of Statutes. The appointment to this office shall last for 2 years.
Viktor Zimmermann is elected by majority of votes to the Executive Committee in accordance with § 10 of Statutes. The appointment to this office shall last for 2 years.
10: Voting on motions submitted by members and by the Executive Committee
The old Executive Committee submitted a following motion to the Assembly:
“If the number of Executive Committee members is below 3, the Executive Committee is empowered to appoint an additional member to the Executive Committee at its own discretion.”
Alltogether, three ballots were submitted and considered at the time of the conference. The motion is accepted by the majourity of votes.
End of the conference: 10:15 a.m.
Additional notes:
After the conference, it came to the attention of the Executive Committee, that the letters with voting documents were received in the US as late as on 6 July, thus making a timely return per mail not possible. The Committe apologizes for irritations and suggests that ballots from our US members be considered if received until 14 July 2007.
Cologne, 7. July 2007
<Signed by members present>
N.B. This is a public version. Members will receive the unabriged report with detailed financial section when Tamara is finished with checking the ballance.