English

Ljubljana Pride 2014: Saturday, 7th June – Saturday 14th June

Click here to see the Pride Parade Program

Ljubljana Pride 2014 message

So what?

This year Slovenian LGBT movement celebrates 30 years. In 1984 festival Magnus, titled »Homosexuality and culture«, took place in Ljubljana. After three decades of individuals efforts we have many things, we have the oldest film festival in Europe, non governmental organisations, lesbian library, publishers, clubs and a Cafe, we have literary awardees, lesbian and gay families with adopted children and legal battles won. But first and foremost we have a community built on the awareness that all of us, friends and strangers, are, despite numerous differences, alike in the way our lives over and over again cut into the expectations of others and the things others take for granted. Perhaps we differ in the colour, the size and brand of the shoes in which we stand in our own closets, but each one of us is faced every morning with the dilemma if, how many times and how we will open this closet.

There are many things we also do not have, we do not have a sensitive constitutional court that would understand its role in protecting minority rights and the historic momentum in which it finds itself; we do not have a progressive left that could be the driving force of equality; we do not have the legal equality of partnerships and families; we do not have a national linguistic corpus* that would recognise the possibility of love between two persons of the same sex; we do not have publicly outed politicians, scientists, business leaders and other public personalities; in 30 years of the movement the national television did not manage to broadcast one singe interview with an LGBT activist. So on one hand we do not have the legal equality, and on the other hand we do not have the necessary visibility, which is the precondition of freedom.

The first we need to demand, the second we need to take. During the Pride Parade visible physical bodies demand legal equality and take the freedom to be what others are every day. Time has come when the Pride Parade becomes our everyday life. Because the discriminatory laws, verbal assaults, strange looks and hidden discomforts do not say anything about us, they speak of the environment that gives them a patriotic right. We just need to live and upon each comment, gesture or insult raise our eyebrows and say: »So what?«. Or as the Slovenian President would say: »I’m gay, so what?«☺
_______________________________________________________
* The Dictionary of Slovenian language describes the word »love« in a manner that is defining love as something exclusively between a man and a woman. (http://bit.ly/1iNZejQ)