Monday, 19th January, at 6 PM, online.
The lecture will show how different legal and medical debates on decriminalization of homosexuality in socialist Yugoslavia were linked to similar discussions elsewhere in Europe, both East and West. Yugoslav sexologists and lawyers were well acquainted with and quoted extensively Magnus Hirschfeld, the Kinsey Reports, the Wolfenden Report, Hans Giese’s books and the American Model Penal Code. When the question of decriminalization was brought to the attention of the Communist Party, all its proponents engaged in convincing politicians of the urgent need to legislate in this direction. In some cases they argued for the “integration of homosexuals in the socialist society” and used phrases such as “unjust discrimination”.
But how these debates impacted homosexuals? Where they aware of them, did they take part in them, and how? A combination of scarce archival material, scattered sexological published accounts, and oral history testimonies suggest a positive answer. Even more, the public debates on homosexuality that emerged in the 1970ies, together with Western liberationist activist models, laid the grounds for the establishment of a highly visible and politically vocal gay and lesbian movement in Ljubljana in 1984.
Franko Dota is a historian specializing in the history of sexuality, queer historiography, and the political and cultural history of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. His recent book, Politička povijest muške homoseksualnosti u socijalističkoj Jugoslaviji [Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia] (Zagreb, 2025), is the first comprehensive historical reconstruction of the political, legal, and medical history of homosexuality in socialist Yugoslavia. Franko Dota is engaged in the Croatian LGBT movement as one of its most prominent leaders and was among the founding members of Zagreb Pride organization.
The event under patronate of QueerMuzeum Warsaw.