Naslov
Professionalization in Sexual Politics and Activism in Croatia in the 2000s

Autori
Butterfield, Nicole

Izvornik
Southeastern Europe (0094-4467) 40 (2016), 1; 54-80

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
professionalization ; European identity ; human rights ; LGBTQ activism ; sexual politics

Sažetak
This paper examines Croatian LGBTQ activists' engagement with discourses of human rights and European identity in their struggles for anti- discrimination legislation. Utilizing the external pressure imposed by European Union institutions on the Croatian government and the government's aim to become an EU member state during the pre- accession process, some activists and the organizations with which they collaborated focused their efforts and resources toward lobbying for legislative protection again discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Aside from the specific circumstances of EU accession, part of the thrust behind the focus on legislative change and lobbying derives from processes of professionalization or the changing financial and legal support structures that the organization began to use during this period, the international and transnational networks in which they took part, and their internal organizational structures. Some activists construct a hierarchical differentiation between a professionalized sphere consisting of serious, professionalized types of activism vs. so-called amateur, cultural-based activism and embrace similar lobbying strategies used by transnational LGBTQ organizations in Europe. These professionalized lobbying strategies have reproduced discourses of human rights and European identity that may foreclose recognition of difference within the larger, diverse LGBTQ community and its needs.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Etnologija i antropologija

POVEZANOST RADA