The American Ambassador to Portugal, Robert Sherman, was invited to be a guest speaker at the opening night of the Lisbon Queer Film Festival which featured the world-premier of the play Orlando, by André Murraças which honored the victims of the June 12, 2016 massacre in Florida. The Ambassador addressed an audience of over 850 people, including the UK Ambassador, Kirsty Hayes, and Lisbon Culture Councilor Catarina Vaz Pinto on the importance of equality and human rights.
The Lisbon Queer Film Festival began in 1997 and is the sole Portuguese film festival exclusively dedicated to queer cinema. Since 2015, Queer Lisboa is also organizing Queer Porto, an independent edition based in the second largest city of the country.
