IGLYO in the Late 90s
In 1994, the eleventh IGLYO conference entitled “1&1” was held in Dublin, Ireland. This event became an infamous moment in IGLYO’s history as some Irish politicians used it to protest the existence of our communities, an event covered in the Irish media.
The twelfth IGLYO conference entitled “Celebrating Diversity” was held in Manchester, UK, in 1995, hosted by the Lesbian and Gay Youth Manchester (LGYM). At this conference the women participants prepared a message to be brought to the United Nations’ Women’s conference in Beijing.
In parallel to its conferences, IGLYO had started to organise international Study Sessions, designed for a smaller group of participants to focus on a specific theme. A notable one is IGLYO’s interfaith dialogue Study Session held in Strasbourg, France, in 1997, co-hosted by the European Union of Jewish Students and the International Movement of Catholic Students. Twenty-four young people from various religious backgrounds gathered for discussion and dialogue.
The fifteenth IGLYO conference entitled “Learn to Live, Learn to Love” was held in Barcelona, Spain, in 1999. The major focus of this conference was on education and more specifically on developing ways to introduce LGBTQ issues into school curriculum and youth groups, a key area of IGLYO’s work today.
Before 2000, the IGLYO secretariat had moved across different cities including Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Bratislava (Slovakia), Brussels (Belgium), Malmö (Sweden), New York (US), and Oslo (Norway). In the next decade, it would move again to other places including Ljubljana (Slovenia), Stockholm (Sweden) and Malta, before settling in its current home city, Brussels (Belgium).