A new LGBTQ community center in Novi Sad is helping shift activist focus in Serbia away from the capital, Belgrade, and to other spaces in the former Yugoslav country.

The center is the first physical office for Izadji, or "Come Out," and will provide a safe space for LGBTQ people and other vulnerable groups.

Several LGBTQ rights groups are operating in Serbia’s capital of Belgrade, like Gayten-LGBT, Labris, Belgrade Pride, Da se zna!, Serbian Pride, XY Spectrum, and a host of other groups that are working in the realm of queer activism.

The rest of the country, however, it’s a bit more sparse.

Located in Serbia’s second largest city Novi Sad, Izadji provides support networks and accessibility to the northern autonomous province of Vojvodina—historically one of the cultural hubs of Yugoslavia.

“[LGBTQ] activism in rural spaces in Serbia don’t exist as organized activism,” Dragoslava Barzut, executive director of Da se Zna! in Belgrade, tells INTO in an email. She added that being openly LGBTQ in smaller places is the only type of activism that really exists there. Read more via INTO