Out of the Margins - Jovan Ulićevic
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Out of the Margins - Jovan Ulićevic

Jovan Ulićevic, Association Spectra, Montenegro, Education Working Group

What is the situation for LBT+ communities in Montenegro?

Montenegro is a very patriarchal country with strict gender roles and norms and a highly masculine violent culture. I believe that for women, especially lesbians and bi women, and for trans people, they are a very marginalised community in Montenegro. We share many common issues like the treatment of our identities, our bodies, our sexualities, our place in these strict gender boxes. I think that often we are punished when we have the courage to go out and defy or overcome these norms.

The situation is getting much better in terms of legislation. But, in practice, implementation is often lacking. We still haven't had any convictions for hate crimes. These crimes are convicted solely as violent behavior, not as hate crime, so sexual orientation or gender identity are not considered as aggravating circumstances.

We have discrimination in healthcare and in social care especially. We had a case in which the Ministry of Internal Affairs defied the law and prohibited a trans woman from changing her name. But, I think that with more engagement and more visibility of the community, stronger safe spaces and a lot of work of activists, the situation is slowly getter better.

What change do you hope to see?

We’ve managed to develop strong social services within Association Spektra because that's a first aid to trans people who come to us asking for help. But then we went back a few steps and we figured out that we need to start tackling the root causes of marginalisation of trans people.

We figured out that our educational system is one of the places where these root causes happen. A lot of young trans people are dropping out of schools. The ones who are remaining in schools experience extreme violence or are not open about their gender identity. And they're always in fear that someone will know or find out about their gender identity.

We have a lack of data regarding the situation or experiences of trans people. The only data we have is our outreach work. We hope with this project to have data to start a discussion about this problem and use this data to advocate. It's not going to happen in a year or two years, but we can start the discussion and do a good campaign and talk to the right people and say: ‘Now we have data. These are the people and this is what they say and this is what they experience.’

How have you found the Expert Group Planning Meeting and collaborating with Stonewall?

I like a lot that there is so much diversity and that people with different backgrounds are here. These few days were very overwhelming and challenging because I’m being made aware of different perspectives, and that we are all marginalised on different levels and from different backgrounds.

I'm very happy that I am a part of a project which shows so much diversity and which shows so many different experiences and different perspectives, because people tend to look at one thing completely differently. Some people will look at the same problem through the process of colonisation, through race, through sexuality, through gender. And that's very exciting!

Visit the Out of the Margins website.