Sextures E-Journal for Sexualities, Culture and Politics, Vol. 1, N. 1. 2009.

LGBTIQ individuals in (former) Yugoslavia have a history of being denied a space – first because of the invisibility cloak forced upon them during the socialist regime, and then because of hegemonic nationalistic ideologies enforcing the traditional hierarchic gender binary and preventing or limiting, with propaganda as well as sheer violence, the safe, natural expression of sexual diversity. Against this backdrop, a network of queer festivals in former Yugoslav countries emerged as a creative solution for local sexually diverse communities to create a space of their own, a space that some activists have called “Queeroslavija”. The essay explores the translation of queer theory and activism into the former Yugoslav context and engages with this neologism as an example of queer use of time and space, coming to define Queeroslavija as a space that is transnational, nostalgic, and utopian – ultimately, a way of finding citizenship in a country that no longer, and not yet, exists.