THE LGBT MOVEMENT AND NATIONAL SENTIMENTS: THE POLITICS OF EX/IN/CLUSION IN THE SERBIAN LGBT COMMUNITY
Keywords:
LGBT movement, civil society, nationalism, Serbia, former Yugoslavia, generation gapAbstract
The LGBT movement in Serbia grew out of a feminist movement, which, during the 1990s, was one of the main pillars of the peace movement in former Yugoslavia and Serbia. This paper examines the relationship of the contemporary LGBT movement in Serbia toward the public and overt expression of national sentiments: (a) within the public discourse, but also (b) within the smaller subcultural circles of the LGBT community in Serbia, as well as (c) the way in which activists today see the social mission of contemporary Serbian LGBT movement. The analysis is focused on four LGBT organizations (Labris, Gaytan, Egal and BG Pride), which are currently the most active and most visible within the public space of Serbian society. Critical discourse analysis will be done on several types of empirical data: (a) data published on official websites of LGBT organizations, (b) media content related to the activities of these organizations and their members, and (c) in-depth semi-structured interviews with prominent LGBT activists of these organizations. The analysis covers several thematic areas: (a) the attitude of the LGBT movement towards mainstream politics, (b) the attitude of the LGBT movement towards the wars and the heritage of the 1990s, (c) the impact of war inheritance on the current politics of the LGBT movement in terms of cooperation with state institutions and other LGBT organizations in the region, as well as the extent of that cooperation, including whether they dealt with painful issues related to the 1990s or not. The analysis shows that tensions exist within the LGBT community that shape the policies of the individual organizations towards tolerance or intolerance of the expression of national sentiments. These policies are partly conditioned by the generation gap that exists between members of the LGBT community belonging to the generation that survived the 1990s and were active within the peace movement, and those that were born thereafter, but also by belonging to the current political groups and organizations that participate in the official political system.
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