Lepa Mladjenovic (Lepa Mlađenović) is a feminist, lesbian, anti-war activist who is known as one of the pioneers of the second wave feminist movement in Serbia. She is a feminist counselor for women survivors of male violence or lesbophobia, a facilitator of workshops, writer, lecturer and active member of several international boards and networks regarding lesbian rights and violence against women.[7] Lepa Mladjenovic is considered a symbol of women’s activism in former Yugoslavia. (Biography via Wikipedia)
«Every lesbian kiss is a revolution»
Some days ago one morning I woke up to the news on all the front pages – the Office of the Prime Minister of Serbia announces birth of a healthy baby boy of the (woman) partner of the Prime Minister Ana Brnabić. Brief two lines, no comments. Great, I thought, what a mess!I have heard rumors about pregnancy few months ago, but it could have passed as a Balkan joke. Now it’s a historical fact, nothing of a joke. Lets see what followed this extraordinary news.
The partner of the Prime Minister, herself a medical doctor employed in the Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade became pregnant through artificial insemination, we were told, for which there is not yet legal right to obtain in Serbia. Further, not only that there is no legal way the Prime Minister of Serbia can be connected to the baby of her partner but there is not even the decision to put a draft of the same-sex partnership law on the government agenda, even though the activists of the Lesbian non-governmental organization Labris have drafted a law in 2010 and lobbied the parliament in 2014 with a campaign Love is a law.
We must also understand the political context: the totalitarian leader, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić has chosen Ana Brnabić on this post himself, she is not elected nor voted for, and all she has to do is to repeat and participate in the leading nationalist, corrupted party program – which we feminists and most of lesbians oppose. So, Ana Brnabić put herself in a contradictory position in which she cannot lobby for the lesbian, gay and trans rights unless she gets permission from a ‘dictator‘ – the permission she did not get. In this context of power impasse the Prime Minister did the courageous act of her partner having a baby. Read more via European Lesbian* Conference