Third generation of Da se zna!’s LGBTQ+ activism school graduates in Novi Sad

Da se zna!, a Belgrade-based LGBTQ+ rights group best known for documenting hate crimes against queer people in Serbia, has completed the third edition of its School of LGBTQ+ Activism. The programme ran from 5 to 8 November in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city and the capital of the northern province of Vojvodina.

Eight queer activists took part, working with speakers from across Serbian civil society on how to turn their ideas into concrete action.

Vladimir Pavlović of the Belgrade Open School led a series of sessions on public advocacy and driving change, while Dragoslava Barzut of Civic Initiatives spoke about public assemblies and protest, and about the history of the queer movement. Bojan Lazić of Da se zna! taught participants how legal mechanisms against hate crime work in practice.

Aleksa Savić of the group IZAĐI (“Come Out”) lectured on queer identities, and Aleksa Krstić of the Hartefakt Institute on intersectionality and the links between the queer movement and other social movements. Helena Vuković of L*Communio spoke about women in the queer movement.

Mental health was a particular focus: psychologist Vedrana Mirković of IZAĐI ran a workshop on how activists can look after themselves in demanding and often draining work.

The school closed with a conversation titled “Living in Activism” with Vladimir Arsenijević of the KROKODIL association and Marija Srdić, a Novi Sad city councillor, journalist and feminist and anti-war activist.

The organisers say they see in this year’s participants the people who will build new spaces of freedom and resistance for the LGBTQ+ community, especially in Vojvodina. The school was supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

Source: dasezna.lgbt. English adaptation: gay-serbia.com.