The LGBTQ+ activism and movement in the Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans after 1990

Abstract

LGBTQ+ politics has become one of the most polarizing issues and a critical political fault line in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Balkans, central to debates about democratic backsliding, regional integration, and civil society. However, it is almost 35 years since the fall of communism and several developments in LGBTQ+ politics and activism have been witnessed with a diversity of outcomes none of which could be described as following the footsteps of the West. Steady (usually slow) progress in LGBTQ+ rights and the success of activism could be witnessed in only a few countries (such as Slovenia, Estonia, Montenegro and Czechia), an ambivalent or stalling development can be traced in many (Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Croatia), some have experienced backsliding after some initial progress in LGBTQ+ rights (Hungary, Poland), and in many other countries of the region no noteworthy change in LGBTQ+ rights could be observed (Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia etc.). This is due to the diversity of political and cultural contexts of the region, as well as resulting civil society development. The LGBTQ+ movements in the individual countries thus vary in the structure of organising, financing, topical and identitarian focus or activist approach. Despite already existing academic interest (e.g., Paternote, Kuhar, 2018, Ayoub, Paternotte, 2014, Slootermaeckers, Touquet, Vermeersch, 2016, Bilić, 2016, Kuhar, Takács, 2007, and others), however, numerous blank spaces remain in our empirical map of how LGBTIQ+ organizations and initiatives have developed (and are still developing) in this region since 1990. Therefore, this panel aims to provide regionally specific and topically focused papers as input for a much broader discussion on the development of the LGBTQ+ activism and movement in the CEE and the Balkans region and beyond; a discussion which will seek historically grounded, thematically structured, and regionally focused comparison(s).

Title	Details
LGBTQ+ Rights in Poland: The impact of EU budgetary intervention	View Paper Details
Existence as activism: life-story-driven narratives in LGBTQ+ Russophone grassroots media	View Paper Details
So close yet so far - LGBTQ+ politics in Czechia and Slovakia	View Paper Details