Anti-gender movement and political activism of young LGBTIQ people in Croatia: ethnographic case study on Zagreb Pride NGO

Marriage referendum campaign that took place in Croatia in 2013 was particularly significant for young LGBTIQ people who were in elementary or high school at the time. Its importance can be understood both on a personal level as well as within national political context. Similar to those anti-gender campaigns seen in other European countries (France, Slovenia, Germany or Italy), Croatian case of marriage referendum campaign organized by the organization ´In the name of the family´ (U ime obitelji) is example of retraditionalization of society through the narrative of endangered heterosexual family (Hodžić, Štulhofer, 2017). This campaign led to conducting a referendum and implementing definition of marriage as a living union between a woman and man in the Croatian Constitution. For this campaign to be successful, one of the detected opportunities was referendum legislation change that took place in 2013. This change has been made in order to make it easier to hold a referendum about Croatia´s accession to the European Union. This article will show importance of marriage referendum campaign for political activism of young LGBTIQ people in Croatia by analysing two questions: how did political context and accession to the European Union indirectly contributed to the development of the anti-gender movement? Also, how do young LGBTIQ people perceive that this campaign has influenced their political activism? In this paper, we will introduce the results of ethnographic case study of Zagreb Pride LGBTIQ NGO that was part of the Horizon 2020 PROMISE (Promoting youth involvement and social engagement: opportunities and challenges for ´conflicted´ young people across Europe) project. The aims of the project were to investigate young people´s responses to challenges they are faced with related to social, cultural or political change, and ways in which they transform their experiences into positive social achievements. Zagreb Pride non-government organization was chosen because of the political and social context of LGBTIQ movement in Croatia, especially after the marriage referendum campaign and increase of hate-crimes against LGBTIQ people that followed. In this ethnography, a total of 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted among Zagreb Pride volunteers.