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“Gej” (Gay) in Southeast Europe

“Southeastern European countries are positioned at one of the globe’s front lines of LGBTI organizing,” writes former Wilson Center research scholar Susan Pearce in her latest policy brief on LBGT rights “Gej” in Southeast Europe. According to Pearce, “There is an opportunity for this region’s activists and governments to assume unique leadership on these issues at this point in history.”

“Gej” (Gay) in Southeast Europe

“Southeastern European countries are positioned at one of the globe’s front lines of LGBTI organizing,” writes former Wilson Center research scholar Susan Pearce in her latest policy brief on LBGT rights “Gej” in Southeast Europe.  According to Pearce, “There is an opportunity for this region’s activists and governments to assume unique leadership on these issues at this point in history.”  Focusing on the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe, Pearce offers two examples that “illustrate the present-day border crossing animated by issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.” Turkey, as Pearce suggests, “is a transit country for LGBTI people escaping gender-based violence in the MENA region,” while Serbia, “has become a hub for sex-reassignment surgery for nationals from countries that do not offer this.”

To read the full text of the policy brief, please refer to the attached document below.

About the Author

Susan Pearce

Assistant Professor of Sociology at East Carolina University
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Global Europe Program

The Global Europe Program addresses vital issues affecting the European continent, US-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues: digital transformation, climate, migration, global governance. We also examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our program activities cover a wide range of topics, from the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE to European energy security, trade disputes, challenges to democracy, and counter-terrorism. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media.  Read more