LGBTI people in the regions: We change people’s minds

Bratislava will dress up in rainbow colours this August again, for the seventh time. This will be for the Bratislava Dúhový Pride diversity festival. But the colours of the rainbow are less bright in the regions, far away from the anonymous environment of the capital.

(Source: Kristína Hamárová)

Slovakia remains a country that hasn’t rooted any recognition of same-sex couples and their families in its legislation. Yet the Constitution was amended in 2014 to protect marriage “as a unique bond between a man and a woman”. Subsequently, the invalid 2015 referendum initiated by the Alliance for Family, also backed by the church, was aimed against the LGBTI community.

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“I’m not going to lie – that referendum was one of the reasons I chose to move to the UK,” said Zuzana (25). She is an openly lesbian manager who had lived in the central Slovak village of Hrochoť before deciding to leave for Brighton.

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