In 1982, Homosexuelle Initiative (HOSI) Wien in Austria started the Eastern Europe Information Pool (EEIP) on behalf of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). It reached out to activists in Eastern European countries, facilitated information exchange, supported activities such as the production and circulation of gay ‘samisdat’ newsletters in Polish, and put together annual activity and news reports. It published a first book on the situation of lesbians and gays in Eastern Europe and helped organise the first ILGA sub-regional conferences for Eastern and Southern Europe, which took place even before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The first was organised in Budapest in 1987, and nine more were to follow: Warsaw 1988, Budapest 1989, Leipzig 1990, Prague 1991, Bratislava 1992, Vienna 1993, Palanga/Lithuania 1994, Kiev 1995, and Ljubljana 1996. (Adapted from ‘Equality for Lesbians and Gay Men’ report by ILGA Europe 2001)

Size

Period covered

EEIP Archive 6954 pages/0.87 metres; Periodicals 88 pieces, 1746 pages/0.22 metres

1982-2010

Languages

Type of documents

Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Moldovan, Polish, Russian, Slovak, Slovene

annual reports, conference reports, forms, letters, magazines, minutes, newspaper clippings, personal papers, petitions, reports

General themes/Keywords

activism, coming out, conferences, discrimination, education, events, health, HIV/AIDS, homophobia, law, LGBTI movement, LGBTI organisations, LGBTI rights, refugees, sexual penal codes, social processes