LGBT Rights in Bosnia: The Challenge of Nationalism in the Context of Europeanization

Abstract

Nationalism has been one of the domestic constraints to progress on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, especially in the Balkans that are dealing with multiple postwar transition realities. Ethno-nationalist challenges, often influenced by religion, have been significant in Bosnia-Herzegovina given weak state identity and democracy, competing institutionalized ethno-national identities, and slow Europeanization. Through the lenses of gendered nationalism, the societal security dilemma, and political homophobia, this article analyzes how the politics and discourse of LGBT rights during the past decade in Bosnia reveal tensions between competing and multiple identities and narratives—European, multiethnic, ethno-nationalist, and religious—using the violent response to the 2008 Queer Sarajevo Festival as a key illustration. However, in the past decade, LGBT rights have progressed and antigay backlash to LGBT visibility (in addition to stronger external leverage and other factors) has resulted in stronger activism and change. The public discourse and response to the announcement of Bosnia’s first Pride Parade represents another turning point in LGBT visibility that seems to reveal that ethno-nationalist challenges may be lessening as LGBT rights norms gain strength.

Pride amid Prejudice: The Influence of LGBT+ Rights Activism in a Socially Conservative Society

“…Social divisions might also prohibit the diffusion of Pride effects between groups, such that Prides become "balkanized" within co-ethnic communities. Hence, the prevalence of nationalism and religiosity offer additional restrictive scope conditions on the transmission of Pride effects beyond activist networks into broader society (Ayoub 2014;Swimelar 2020). Furthermore, such restrictions likely apply to any movement advocating for fluid social constructs that disrupt the fixity of national or religious identity narratives, such as women's (Htun and Weldon 2018) and immigrant (Zepeda-Millán 2017) rights movements.…”

“…The concept is useful for illustrating how Pride became a tool of government to demonstrate cooperation with the EU while using a heavy security presence that limited the visibility of LGBT+ people marching (Slootmaeckers 2017, 530). Serbian national discourse framed the Belgrade Pride as a foreign Western influence antithetical to Serbian identity (Swimelar 2020). Some conservative opposition groups in Bosnia also equate LGBT+ rights with the EU in a negative way, following disillusionment with the accession process (Page 2018b).…”

“…while prohibiting alternative LGBT+ identities (Swimelar 2020). Thus, Bosnia as a postconflict society is ideal for evaluating whether the Pride leads to rallying effects around the heteronormative, nationalist values that were instrumental to wartime nation-building.…”

“…LGBT+ activists and ethnonationalist oppositions to gain public visibility and shape the political discourse surrounding LGBT+ communities (Swimelar 2020).…”

“…For example, Vuletic (2013) illustrates how the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Croatia has consistently built support around "heteronationalism," informed by the Catholic Church, as a criterion for belonging to the Croat nation. The prevalence of homophobia and nationalism in society offers conservative political movements opportunities to build social support by rallying against LGBT+ activists (Swimelar 2020).…”