A contested terrain of non-heterosexual citizenship: The Europeanization of sexual citizenship in the region of former Yugoslavia

The process of European Union enlargement that consists of negotiations with the aspiring countries often entails the hierarchical distinction between the “civilized” Western Europe and “yet to be civilized” Eastern Europe (Böröcz, 2006; Močnik, 2002; Butterfield, forthcoming). In this paper I will address the ways in which the rights of sexual minorities, becoming a part of requirements for the EU membership in the context of accession process in former Yugoslavia (most notably in Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia) represent a prime site where this unequal division is negotiated by different actors, such as political elites, nationalist groups, and NGOs for the rights of sexual minorities. In particular, I will analyze the scope of actual changes in sexual citizenship taking place in Yugoslav successor states together with different reactions that the EU requirement to protect the rights of sexual minorities provokes among nationalist groups on the one hand and the non-governmental organizations on the other. The aim of my analysis is twofold. On the one hand, I want to explore and assess the ways in which sexual citizenship has been re-defined in the Yugoslav successor states in the past decade. At the same time, I will critically reflect upon the process of “Europeanization” by examining to what extent the hierarchical distinction between “West” and “East” present in the negotiation process affects the (nationalist) resistance to the rights of sexual minorities.