hrvatski

Zagreb Pride LGBTIQ NGO and ´conflicted´ youth in Croatia: Is this a country for all of us?

In 2013, the organization ´In the Name of the Family´ organized the campaign that resulted in a referendum for inclusion of a definition of marriage as a union of man and woman in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. As a reaction on a campaign Zagreb Pride organized the biggest Pride March until then, gathering around 15 000 supporters, under the motto ´This country is for all of us!´. Those events took place in the political and social context of country burdened with recession, numerous corruption affairs and civil distrust in political institutions. This led to radicalization of different politics and created the favorable atmosphere for political populist actors, often supported by neoconservative civil society organizations. This presentation will introduce the results of recently finished ethnography on the PROMISE project about Zagreb Pride LGBTIQ non-government organization. PROMISE (Promoting youth involvement and social engagement: opportunities and challenges for ´conflicted´ young people across Europe) is a Horizon 2020 project which aims to understand and promote young people´s engagement in society in different European countries. The objectives of PROMISE are to explore young people´s role in shaping society (past, present and future) and to investigate their responses to these challenges, as well as transform them to positive social achievement. As the project is focused on young people that are ´in conflict´ with authority and social norms, Zagreb Pride was chosen because of the social and political context of the LGBTIQ movement in Croatia. This especially refers on years following the campaign for marriage referendum because of increase of hate speech against LGBTIQ people in Croatia. The paper will present the result of ethnographic fieldwork that lasted for eleven months, after which a qualitative analysis of 31 semi-structured interviews was made. As one of the key findings of the ethnography is the existence of stigmatization as well as experiences of violence and bulling for LGBTIQ community in Croatia.

Gender equality, sexuality, conflict, marriage referendum, LGBTIQ rights, stigmatization

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