Slovakia

Overview

According to the Anti-discrimination Act adopted in 2004, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is against the law in Slovakia. However, same-sex marriage is not legally recognised. A 2014 constitutional amendment defines marriage exclusively as the union of a man and a woman. However, the Pew Research Center survey conducted 2015-2017 in 34 countries demonstrates that 47% of Slovaks favour same-sex marriage.

• A comprehensive history on LGBT Rights in Slovakia going back to the pre-Communist era on Wikiwand [in English].
• An overview of rights and legal acts [in English].
• Country ranking [in English].

​Academic institutions

Some academic research has been published on the topic of gender by the following institutions, but research on the LGBTQ+ is very sparse. 

• Centre for Gender Studies, Comenius University
• Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice
• Slovak Academy of Sciences

Resources

Books

• Fejes, N., & Balogh, A. (2012). Queer visibility in post-socialist cultures. Bristol: Intellect books.
• Havelková H. & Oates-Indruchová L. (2014). The politics of gender culture under state socialism: an expropriated voice. London: Routledge.
• Lišková, K. (2018). Sexual liberation, socialist style: Communist Czechoslovakia and the science of desire, 1945-1989. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Mazierska, E. (2008). Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema: Black Peters and men of marble. New York: Berghahn books.
• O'Dwyer, C. (2018). Coming out of communism: The emergence of LGBT activism in Eastern Europe.  New York: New York University.
• Sokolova, V. (2021). Queer Encounters with Communist Power: Non-Heterosexual Lives and the State in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1989. Prague: Karolinum Press.
• Tamagne, F. (2006). A History of Homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris 1919 – 1939. New York: Algora.
• Vērdiņš, K. & Ozolinš, J. (2016). Queer Stories of Europe. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dissertations

• Lorencova, V. & Henderson, L. (2006). Becoming visible: Queer in postsocialist Slovakia. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Periodicals

• Atribút [in Slovak].
• Glosolalia - journal for Gender in Arts and Theory [in Slovak].
• QYS Magazín [in Slovak].

Repositories

• Catalogue of books and publications from the Institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences [in Slovak and English].
• Centrálny register záverečných prác (CRZP) - a central repository of final theses and dissertations [in Slovak].
• Slovak archive of social data [in Slovak and English].

Data and statistics

• European LGBT Survey, 2012. FRA Europe [in English].
• Political preferences of LGBT people in Slovakia 2018. Report. Iniciatíva Inakosť [in Slovak].
• Slovak LGBT Survey 2017. Report. Iniciatíva Inakosť [in Slovak].
• Slovakia hate crime data by OSCE ODIHR [in English].
• State-Sponsored Homophobia report: latest edition, includes maps and dataset, ILGA Europe - a world survey of sexual orientation laws + older editions [in English].
• Surveys by Iniciatíva Inakosť [in Slovak].

Reports

• Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Slovakia 2020. Report by ILGA Europe [in English].
• ECRI - Country monitoring in Slovak Republic. Reports, 1997 - 2020 [in English].
• ECRI Report on Slovakia, ECRI 2014 [in English, French, Slovak].
• Legal Study on Homophobia and Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Via Iuris and ETC Slovakia, April 2010 [English].
• Meeting the challenge of accession Surveys on sexual orientation discrimination in countries joining the European Union. ILGA Europe Policy Paper, April 2004 [English].
• The biggest survey showed the lives of LGBT people. Article in The Slovak Spectator, 17 May 2018 [in English].

News portals

• Lesba.sk - lesbian community portal [in Slovak].
• Queer Slovakia - An online magazine dedicated to queer culture in Slovakia [in Slovak].

Audio-visual

• Stories of acceptation - 8 videos by Iniciatíva Inakosť [in Slovak].

Digital libraries and archives

• Imrich Matyáš online exhibition - the exhibition captures the life and activities of Bratislava's Imrich Matyáš (1896-1974), who for the past 40 years of his life tried to make homosexual people return to their dignity [in Slovak].
• Interviews with Aspekt - interview of Jana Juráňová (one of the editors of the feminist journal Aspekt) with two lesbian women: Anna Daučíková and Anna Fábryová, both lesbian activists [in Slovak].
• Queer Memory: Loading: Love - an exhibition about the past of gay community in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia [in English].

Organisations

• Diversity PRO - an NGO aimed at raising awareness to workplace diversity & inclusion, and promoting diversity visibility and leadership of LGBT people [in Slovak and English].
• GayChristians Slovakia - informal group creating a safe space for LGBT Christian [in Slovak].
• Iniciatíva Inakosť - since 2012 Iniciatíva Inakosť is a platform of Slovak organizations, activists and activists with a common program of equalization of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersexual people in Slovakia [in Slovak].
• Saplinq - civic association for LGBT people [in Slovak].
• TransFúzia - NGO supporting transgender people in Slovakia [in Slovak].

Other resources

• Drama Queer Theatre Festival [in Slovak].
• LGBT Business Forum [in English and Slovak].
• LGBTI sports team [in Slovak].
• Nomantinels theatre [in Slovak].
• Pride Bratislava [in Slovak].
• Queer Leaders Forum (QLF) Blog [in Slovak].
• Slovak Queer Film Festival [in Slovak].