by: Marcel Baaijens …

Despite the presence of a shops called ‘Trendy’, ‘Sissy’ and a bright pink shop called ‘Dorothy’ there are no signs of gay/queer life in Sturovo. Applying the statistical 10% average to the population of about 15,000, there should be at least a few. No visible presence generally means that being gay and out is not so cool and not regarded as safe by those who are.
SOURCE and full post: http://marcel-baaijens.blogspot.com/2007/04/queer-jewel-in-small-town-slovakia.html  

SOURCE and more info at: http://www.queerparade.cz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=34&lang=en

20 th June 2008 – evening of author’s reading in Café MonRo at 18.00.

21th June 2008 – workshop: creation of placards, flags, posters, and other visually catching objects for the parade. Location: Hnutí DUHA, Bratislavská 31 at 16.00 – 20.00.

21st June 2008 – Gay Pride: June meeting of Gay Teens group, more on GaTe website

23rd June 2008 - Rainbowlike queerevening with music, but without dance or the Family is the basis of state, let us tolerate it. Musical-theatrical composition about love, relationships between people of all shapes, colours and orientations (Lucie Jarkovská and others). Location: Starý pivovar at 20.00.

24th June 2008 – public panel discussion on Gay and Lesbian Parenting guests founders of „The Same Family” civic association. Location: Café Práh at 17.00.

25th June 2008 – Queer Fest Brno 2008 – readings from Ellen DeGeneres and theatre performance of Lanford Wilson’s Queer Monologues (Andrea Jochmanová and Jiří Bartoň).  Location: Starý pivovar at 20.00.

26th June 2008 – public panel and discussion “We want the same rights”, guests Olga Pechová and Martina Štěpánková, Jiří Hromada and Martin Strachoň, LGBTI rights activists. Location: Café Práh at 17.00. 

27th June 2008 – meeting with the activists from Slovakia and Poland, discussion for LGBTGI organizers and volunteers

28th June 2008 – the day of the parade:

from 10am: stalls at the Liberty Square, 13.00:presentation, speeches, 14.00: parade, 16.00, in the evening, there will be a party of the festival

29th June 2008 – children’s afternoon in Lužánky park: sport and entertaining activities, discussion with parents at 14.00

Exhibitions, other events during June

Jana Štěpánová and Gabriela Kontra – “Family Map” – Gallery Kabinet: photographs, 10 th June – 6 th August 2008, exhibition opening on 9 th June at 18.00
Tearoom Probuzený slon – pictures by gay artist Kubasa
Restaurant Áčko – retrospective photographic exhibition from the activities of the gay group Kluci.info

Becoming visible: Queer in postsocialist Slovakia
Viera Lorencova, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Date: 2006

Abstract

Drawing on a rich archive of print and electronic sources, in-depth interviews and participant observation in three Slovak lesbian and gay nongovernmental organizations Ganymedes, Museion and Altera, this ethnography presents a culturally and historically situated analysis of the conditions and effects of the emerging visibility of sexual minorities in post-1989 Slovakia. At the core of this study is Foucault’s theorizing of sexuality as an effect of discourses, and his genealogical approach to studying the links between discursive practice and different modalities of power. Through uncovering multiple and diffuse sites where heteronormativity is challenged, this study disrupts dominant narratives of social change that efface sexual-political struggle, and situates the emerging visibility of sexual minorities in Slovakia within the larger contexts of postsocialist transformations, European integration and globalization.

This dissertation examines the following questions: How can we explain the rise of visibility of sexual minorities in post-1989 Slovakia? What are the sites of heightening visibility? How do various discursive practices effect the formation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer sexual-political subjectivities and activist networks in the context of Slovak language and culture? How do postsocialist transformation, European integration and globalization affect the ‘queering’ of civil society in contemporary Slovakia?

Slovak sexual minorities emerged from invisibility with the establishment of LGBT nongovernmental organizations and periodicals in a period of societal crisis triggered by the collapse of communism in 1989 and ensuing political, economic, and cultural change. During Slovakia’s accession to the European Union, LGBT activism was further mobilized by access to new knowledge and resources, marginal participation in transversal decision-making, and transnational activist networking. While Slovak LGBT activists still struggle with movement participation, they continue to establish themselves as producers of counter-knowledge and as political force that can no longer be ignored. This study documents their communicative and political intervention as a record of a social movement taking shape, and as an analysis of contested sexual discourses at a key historical juncture. It aims to contribute insight and intellectual energy to future activism and to the evolution of queer culture in Slovakia.
Subject Area
ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL (0326); MASS COMMUNICATIONS (0708); GENDER STUDIES (0733)

TAKEN FROM: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3242364/ 

if you wanna chat / email with queer people in slovakia in english language, join this google group: http://groups.google.com/group/english-speaking-queers-in-slovakia 

and dont forget to drop by this blog from time to time …

any posts about queer experience or queer strangers in slovakia or with slovaks is welcome …