Stockholm Pride makes a bid to host WorldPride in 2012
At the end of August this year, Stockholm Pride will submit an application to host WorldPride in 2012. The announcement was made public in an article published today.
- We believe that a WorldPride held in Stockholm would promote the advancement of LGBTI issues in many different contexts, both in Sweden and internationally, says Jesper Hansén, Secretary of Stockholm Pride and main writer of the application.
Jonah Nylund, President of Stockholm Pride, has co-signed the article together with the Mayor of Stockholm Sten Nordin and the Chair of Stockholm County Council Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd.
- The public sector must be screened to find any pockets of homophobia and transphobic tendencies. No one who contacts a public institution in Stockholm is to fear not to be treated with respect regardless of gender identity, expression of gender or sexual orientation, says Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd.
In the article it is made clear that much work still lies ahead in the field of LGBTI related issues.
- With a WorldPride celebrated in Stockholm we wish to show the most open city in the world, says Sten Nordin.
WorldPride is a global event, the first of which was held in Rome in July 2000 and the second in Jerusalem in 2006. Stockholm Pride, strengthened by the success of organising this year's EuroPride, wants to be the host of WorldPride in 2012. In the years up to the event, Stockholm Pride will work closely with the City and County Council of Stockholm to realize the vision of Stockholm as the most open city in the world.
In late October, the delegates at the InterPride 2008 Conference in Vancouver will decide whether Stockholm Pride will be entrusted in the hosting of WorldPride in 2012.
Stockholm Pride is a non-profit non-governmental organisation founded in 1998 as the platform for EuroPride held in Stockholm that same year. The objective of the organisation is to organise the annual Stockholm Pride festival.
