Pracownia Obszaru Postjugosłowiańskiego/ Post-Yugoslav Area Research Center (Instytut Slawistyki Zachodniej i Południowej UW)
warmly invites to the seminar on
From the Streets to Parliamentary Seats: The LGBT Movement in Slovenia
by Roman Kuhar (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Tuesday, 10 March ‘26, 18:00, on-line
https://uni-lj-si.zoom.us/j/96703058240
The link available at the website: slawistyka.uw.edu.plThis lecture presents an overview of the development of the LGBT movement in Slovenia from its beginnings in the early 1980s to the present. Emerging in the final decade of Yugoslavia, the Slovenian gay and lesbian movement was the first of its kind in both the Yugoslav and wider Eastern European context. Over the past forty years, the movement has moved from alternative cultural spaces and grassroots activism toward greater institutional visibility and political engagement. The lecture highlights several key turning points in this development. Particular attention is given to the long struggle for marriage equality, culminating in the adoption of full marriage equality in 2022. This marked an important moment in the movement’s trajectory and positioned Slovenia as the first post-socialist country to introduce such legislation. At the same time, the debates surrounding marriage equality opened space for anti-gender mobilizations in Slovenia, which in recent years have influenced the movement’s strategies and public positioning. These developments have also contributed to a shift among some activists from civil society engagement toward party politics.
Roman Kuhar is a Professor of Sociology and a researcher at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. His research focuses on issues of discrimination, human rights, citizenship, and equality policies. He has participated in several domestic and international research projects and has published and edited several books, including Beyond the Pink Curtain: Everyday life of LGBT people in Eastern Europe (with J. Takács, Peace Institute, 2007), Anti-Gender Mobilizations in Europe and the Feminist Response: Productive Resistance (with R. Smrdelj, Palgrave, 2025), Anti-Gender Mobilizations in the Post-Yugoslav Space: Hidden Connection (with A. Zaharijević, Palgrave, 2026) and Anti-gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against Equality (with D. Paternotte, Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017). For the latter, he was awarded the ARRS Excellent in Science Award in 2018. From 2017 to 2021, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. He is currently a co-editor at the journal Social Politics (Oxford University Press) and the head of the research unit at the Department of Sociology.