Centaurus - Gay and Lesbian Initiative South Tyrol
Centaurus - Gay and Lesbian Initiative South Tyrol - Arcigay Provincial Committee ( Italian Centaurus - Gay e lesbiche dell'Alto Adige / Sudtirolo - Comitato provinciale Arcigay ) is currently the only officially registered association of same-sex women and men in South Tyrol . The seat of the association is Bolzano .
activity
Centaurus stands up for the civil rights and social concerns of homosexual and bisexual people and rejects any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation. The association describes itself as independent, non-partisan, non-denominational, anti-racist, inter-ethnic and has no profit intentions.
The association has been a member of the national Italian association Arcigay (Associazione lesbica e gay italiana) since 1999 and is considered a provincial committee (comitato provinciale) for South Tyrol. There is a strong cooperation with the Provincial Committee of Trento, which is a member of the national association Arcilesbica . Furthermore, the cooperation with the HOSI in Tyrol has increased in recent years .
The main topics of the association are the support and promotion of the coming-out of gays and lesbians as well as the information work via the telephone advice services Infogay and Lesbianline and the internet presence . By working with other social and cultural associations, a broader public is to be reached in order to raise the awareness of the South Tyrolean population for homosexual issues. The association owns the only specialist library in South Tyrol on the subject of homosexuality, which contains 500 books and 80 DVDs and video cassettes. The clubhouse is also a meeting place for other smaller initiatives. In 2006 the fifth edition of the club magazine Centaurus Magazine was produced.
Members
The number of members is currently 49. As a result of the reorganization of the state headquarters in Bologna in 2005, Arcigay - associazione gay italiana became the association Arcigay - associazione lesbica e gay italiana, which also appeals to homosexual women . Currently there are only very few women registered with Centaurus; in 2006 the proportion of women made up only 6.3% of memberships.
financing
The association is financed by membership fees, proceeds from own initiatives such as the LesbianGayDisco and donations. In addition, the association receives funding from the state of South Tyrol and the municipality of Bolzano . In addition, the association's headquarters are provided free of charge by the South Tyrolean provincial administration.
history
According to an advertisement in the weekly magazine ff in October 1991, some gays got together for a meeting. This gave rise to the idea of forming a self-help group. A first formal statute was passed in February 1992, the association named Centaurus . The Centaurus is a mythical creature from Greek mythology, which is characterized by its ferocity and combative nature, which is supposed to symbolize the struggle of every single homosexual against intolerance and discrimination. Initially, the neutral name should not make the issue of homosexuality obvious to everyone at first glance. The term also has the advantage of being understood in all three South Tyrolean national languages. At the first regular general meeting in March 1992, the association HIS IOS CENTAURUS ( Homosexual Initiative Südtirol (HIS) / Iniziativa Omosessuale Sudtirolo (IOS)) was officially founded with a revised statute, a new board was elected and then entered in the register of associations.
The meetings initially took place in inns, then for about two months at the La strada / Der Weg association. From January 1992 onwards, Verdi Grüne Vërc made a room available for two to three evenings a week. HIS / IOS Centaurus has had its own headquarters in Bozen / Bolzano since 1995 .
In June 2003, Centaurus was entered in the register of voluntary organizations by decree of the governor and thus has the status of an ONLUS organization (non-profit social organization).
From 2004 until the reorganization of the national associations in 2005, which excluded this, Centaurus was also a member of the Arcilesbica organization .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Coming out in South Tyrol: Homosexuals in the Alpental - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Panorama. Retrieved February 6, 2017 .
- ↑ Source: Arcigay Bologna
- ↑ centaurus.org: Registration Arcilesbica ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 23, 2007
