Transforming anger into resilience: The Zagreb Pride LGBTIQ NGO and stigmatized youth in Croatia

Abstract

After an intensive marriage referendum campaign in 2013, organized by the ‘In the Name of Family’ organisation (Cro. U ime obitelji), the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman was included in the Croatian constitution. At the time of the campaign, the participants in this research were young people, most of whom were in elementary or secondary school. Considering most of them had not come out to their immediate social circle, they were particularly vulnerable because of the visibility that was imposed on them.This article will introduce the results of ethnographic research on the Zagreb Pride LGBTIQ non-governmental organisation, as part of which we conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with former and (at the time) current members of the organisation. We focused on three different issues: 1. How the marriage referendum campaign affected young LGBTQ individuals and their social engagement; 2. Why they saw their identity as an expression of political activism; 3. How they transformed their initial negative feelings into resilience and political activism.The results show that the marriage referendum campaign had a significant impact on young LGBTQ people, transforming their initial feelings of anger and fear into resilience. Considering the political and social context in Croatian society at the time, our participants noted that they thought about their coming out as a political act. Consequently, this inspired them to further mobilise and take part in political activism.