The more there are Journalists’ Codes of Ethics, the less we have journalists’ ethics. Slovene mass media nonchalantly take the right to publicly use expressions of xenophobia, racism and intolerance. One summer morning a journalist from a public radio station in a series of practical jokes said: “I ordered food at the Chinese restaurant, and I had it delivered by a Bosnian. Be wary of who you employ!” To a report on fascist outbursts of the boss of Formula 1 that were condemned straight away by foreign media, a sports journalist from a Slovenian public TV added an indulgent commentary as if to say that “no one resented him personally.” A Slovenian public TV channel published on its web page an interview with a priest who in an assault of wrathful opposition against same-sex marriage stated: “I venture to shoot here.” To the press release issued by the lesbian section LL, ŠKUC, Ljubljana, a journalist of a right-wing weekly paper replied that “a fund for medical treatment should be raised.” The rock critic and columnist of a Ljubljana daily expressed a feeling of “uneasiness” with regard to the column written by his colleague who criticizes Nazi skins…. So, Chinese food is delivered by a Bosnian, we feel sympathy for a neo-Nazi, we shoot homosexuals or at least cure them, and feel uneasy about the critic of neo-Nazism. Journalist ethics need to be closely analysed in terms of discourse. One can stumble upon outgrowths of Nazi, misogynist, sexist, bizarrely faultfinding and predatory gladiator-like media practice, commentary and column writing at every step. All in the style of the most popular right-wing watchword of today: “Be Intolerant, Be Normal,” raging in Europe. The Aryan syndrome is not something that slips furtively into the media space, on the contrary it reigns sovereignly over the editorial fatherland.

When Jerzey Buzek, former Polish Prime Minister and member of the reactionary European People’s Party was elected president of the European Parliament, Slovene media received the press release from the president of European Parliament’s Intergroup for Gay and Lesbian Rights Michael Cashman. Cashman invited Buzek to publicly condemn the controversial homophobic Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effects of Public Information which severely prohibits any information about homosexuality, bisexuality and polygamy in schools and public institutions, and was adopted in June by the Lithuanian Parliament. The call upon the new president of the European parliament the first day following his election was not accidental; in his career so far, Buzek has been frequently actively adverse to homosexuals’ human rights. It is probably no coincidence that Slovene media have failed to publish this information, just as it is no coincidence that Buzek has failed to condemn the problematic law.

Moreover, in Lithuania, a full member state of the European Union, explicit criminalisation of homosexuality is being introduced. Indeed, in September the Parliament adopted amendments to the Penal Code ruling that public promotion of same-sex relations and financing of such promotion are liable to punishment. An “internal issue” of Lithuania, as it may seem, this is in fact a dramatic scenario that can be extended to other countries, as well. It is a horrific announcement of the 21st Century revival of witch-hunting.

In July, in a cold-blooded killing that took place on the premises of the Society for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Tel Aviv, Israel, two people died, and ten were injured. The attack of the society carried out by means of automatic arms during a gathering of young gays and lesbians points to a planned, intentional act of killing. It points to where politically hostile speech leads and who enjoys its fruits. No one is held responsible for the killing, certainly not the Israeli politicians who have persistently instigated the nation against homosexuals. Ironically, the attack was condemned by the Israeli Prime Minister, senior political officials, and rabbis. But why did they fail to decisively reject the instigation to intolerance beforehand, in due time?

At the beginning of August, the Human Rights Watch published a report with the title They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq on the systematic killing of gays in Iraq by Islamic militia. Since the beginning of 2009, hundreds of gays have been killed and the Iraqi authorities have failed to do anything about it. After publishing the report, the world called upon Iraq to cease killing raids, out-of-court execution, and the torture and mutilation of gays; extremists either throw the mutilated bodies in a rubbish dump or hang them out in the streets as a warning. Although consensual homosexual relationships among men in Iraq are not forbidden, the Islamic “killing units” execute terror throughout the country.

Benefits of Liberation
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the legendary Stonewall Riots, the street demonstrations against the police raid on the nights of the 27th and 28th of June 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York – a rebellion against the police violence against homosexuals and the transgender community. In the fight with the police, gays, lesbians, transvestites and transsexuals won. What is less known is that the Stonewall Riots were sparked by a lesbian.

The event in Stonewall that is today but a destination of gay tourists stands as a historical turning point and embodies the beginning of the modern gay and lesbian liberation movement. Soon after the Gay Liberation Front was founded in New York, analogous organizations emerged in other parts of the world, too. The first male homosexual organization Mattachine Society was founded in the USA back in 1950, followed in 1955 by the first lesbian organization, Daughters of Bilitis. Europe saw the emergence of the first homosexual organizations even earlier – COC was founded in the Netherlands in 1946, while the homosexual movement in Denmark and Sweden emerged as early as the 1940s. Although there were pioneering associations for the rights of homosexuals and lesbians previously, it was not until Stonewall that the movement became massive and went global.

On the movement’s anniversary, a dilemma about the achievements and effects of more than sixty years of struggle for the emancipation of homosexuality arises. The dilemma is extremely serious, and a comparison between the initial and today’s state of things is hardly an accomplished achievement. What was once a revolutionary, radical liberation movement is today a more conservative, moderate lobbying for integration and assimilation. As years have passed, the sharpness has become torpid, the political charge vanished, radicalness faded. Today the western gay and lesbian movement, which meanwhile has been renamed as the GLBT, GLBTI, GLBTIQ or simply the Queer movement, carries no clear political messages. Today’s “agendas” (what a juicy euro-bureaucratic word) are full of conservative and even clerical priorities: so the main European event of the homo-community this year took place with the theme of theology. The 31st Conference of the European Region of ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) took place at the end of October 2009 in Malta under the slogan Overcoming Religious and Cultural Barriers to LGBT Equality. It was focused on the dialogue with religious institutions, and the role of religion and the believers in abolishing homophobia. What could be the role of the institution that was, historically, the most prominent oppressor of homosexuals? A huge part of the world gay and lesbian activism movement flatters religious institutions, non-critically favours same sex marriages and sings at conferences, holding hands. It imitates the old instead of demanding new. In such a stuffy climate, sporadic demands to open the issue of racism and xenophobia within homo activism seem straightforwardly heretical. At the World Out Games held in Copenhagen, Denmark, an incident occurred in which the Dutch representatives called the Nigerian representatives monkeys.

The descent into conservatism is clearly reflected in European activism, and Slovenia is no exception in this regard. Instead of a series of urgent global and local political themes to be tackled with, such as criminalization of homosexuals, death penalty and prosecution of homosexuality, freedom of movement in EU, freedom of gathering, hate speech, social rights, class differences, social exclusion, poverty, marginalization, right of migrants and asylum seekers, deportations, the right to information, cultural expression, fair education, the right to safety from violence and discrimination etc., the European as well as Slovenian activists think of how to make their integration and assimilation into the most dominant system possible. Their main point is to normalize homosexuality by virtue of legalising marriages and children, taking over the model of heteronormativity.

Brothers Slavs
The Moscow senior official Oleg Mitvol undertook the struggle against debauchery; together with the prosecutor’s office, a special police unit and in escort of TV cameras he set about “disinfecting” the gay scene. In a police raid in July they rushed in the bar Body&Soul and arrested several guests. Inspired by religious purity of authority, the Russian Union of Evangelist Christians set out on a crusade against homosexuals, organizing protests in front of the club. The Christians believe that “Moscow is not Sodom” and have therefore supported the campaign for morality directed against clubs, saunas and hotels that are allegedly home to “debauchery.” Mitvol thinks that gay clubs, similarly to casinos, “lead to the moral degradation of citizens.” Even the Communist deputies of the Russian assembly are supposed to be a part of the communist-homosexual conspiracy. How passionate is the embrace between the state and the church when ultra-nationalism is indicated by banners sporting slogans such as “Russia against homosexuals!,” “Family against homosexuals!” and “God against homosexuals!” … A real Schnellkurs in ultra-nationalism.

In one of his theatre plays, the Carinthian director Marjan Štikar brilliantly repeats the phrase “Sport ist Mort!” What an ironic, a thousand times verified truth, one that is confirmed by hundreds of graffiti “Kill the faggots!” on the facades of the Serb capital city. This graffiti is the image of the mental state of the fans of football clubs Partizan (Partisan) and Crvena zvezda (Red Star). The football hooligans, those same neo-Nazis who in 2001 in Belgrade bloodily suppressed the first attempt at a Pride parade in Serbia, are diligently putting their names under the graffiti. Due to public calls for killing gays, the Serb non-governmental organizations called upon the heads of both clubs to withdraw from the hostility and condemn homophobia. But the football lobby wrapped itself in silence. Therefore the World Football Association FIFA has been called upon to press upon Serb football teams and ask them to cease calling for lynching of gays and to publicly condemn hostility.

In August, the Committee for Social Right which supervises the implementation of the European Social Charter accused Croatia of spreading homophobia and prejudices in school textbooks. The curricula of sex education violates the pupil’s basic right to information by the publishing of books that state condoms fail to protect against HIV, that same-sex relationships are deviant and that unemployed women make better mothers than those who have a job. Perhaps Slovenia too should be denounced for some medicine students, along with some gay activists, fervently argue that condoms are not a safe protection against HIV, but rather abstinence, monogamy, faithfulness and marriage are the only protection. Actually, the one to be denounced is the Vatican.

This summer saw a series of attacks on gays and lesbians – in Zagreb, Rijeka, Ljubljana and Belgrade. In Belgrade some two hundred guests of a gay bar Hrabro srce (Brave Heart) were evacuated due to attacks with teargas. Eyewitnesses say that the police were laughing at the incident. A few days later a group of ten fans of Crvena zvezda on a night bus beat a thirty-year old lesbian, shouting at her with swear words such as “Lesbo cunt!” and “Kill the dyke!” They were kicking her in the head, belly and back, long after she had passed out. Neither the bus chauffer nor the passengers reacted. Instead of arresting the aggressors, the police arrested the victim accusing her of breaching law and order. Only twelve hours later was she allowed to seek medical assistance.

1 The title of the song “Užas je moja furka” (Horror is my drive) is from the record “Sunčana strana ulice” (The Sunny Side of the Street) by the rock band Azra, Zagreb, 1981.

Tatjana Greif holds a PhD in archaeology. She is a lesbian activist, publicist, editor of the book ŠKUC – Vizibilija and the Journal for Critique of Science, Ljubljana.