Pride Month, in June, assumes greater significance if you feel invisible for the rest of the year. And many LGBTQ+ people in Slovenia understand just what that means.

There is no district — or even a single street — in the picturesque capital, Ljubljana, which could truly qualify as "gay friendly." The same goes for the country's other, smaller cities.

"In the sense of physical places that would be explicitly LGBT-friendly, there are not a lot," said Barbara Rajgelj, a lawyer who also co-runs a city center bar that stages events for gay people in Ljubljana.

Rajgelj is concerned that intolerance encouraged by political leaders is having a growing impact in her country.

"Safe spaces will be more and more important, because the violence is coming from the top down, from parliament to the digital media and to the physical spaces. And I can see that people are more and more courageous in explicitly expressing their hate," she told DW.

Pride Month 2026 was different

In previous years, Pride Month and its various events would have offered some of those safe spaces.

It has also served as an annual reminder that despite the dearth of physical infrastructure, Slovenia has a thriving LGBTQ+ community.

But this year, Pride Month has been less joyous than usual — in large part due to Slovenia's recently-installed right-wing government.

It decided that the run-up to the centerpiece Pride Parade in Ljubljana on June 13 was the perfect time to take down the rainbow flag, which had been flying outside the Culture Ministry.

As justification, an official statement insisted that the ministry "must represent all citizens and all cultural creators, regardless of their personal beliefs, identities or worldviews."

It did not elaborate on how it was representing LGBTQ+ people by removing the rainbow flag or whether appeasing homophobic views was now official policy.

New government's move to remove flag 'extremely symbolic'

Under the previous, center-left government of Robert Golob, the flag had always flown throughout Pride Month. Indeed, the outgoing government raised it at the start of June, before the new prime minister, Janez Jansa, took office a few days later.

Removing the rainbow flag was one of the first actions of his new administration. And as far as campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights in Slovenia are concerned, that sent a powerful signal.

"Even though we expected this would happen, it was still extremely symbolic, making sure that we understand — within the LGBT community and society — that things have changed," said Simona Mursec, the organizer of Ljubljana Pride.

Pride Parade participation up this year

Those changes are already being felt — and reacted to — by LGBTQ+ people and their allies.

Participation in this year's Pride Parade was higher. Organizers estimated a four-figure increase compared to the previous two editions, which they believe was a direct response to the government's stance. But the challenges were also greater.

Increased security was on hand to prevent physical attacks, but it could not prevent the verbal abuse being directed at the marchers or the harassment of participants away from the parade.

"They get attacked by organized groups of young men, who display fascist and Nazi insignia," said Mursec. She added that the assailants threw eggs, pushed people to the ground and — in an escalation of the Culture Ministry's action — seized and burned their rainbow flags.

"All these people who come and attack LGBT people, they didn't just appear one day. No, they are there because politicians worked for years to create them and to support them and to stimulate them. And so now we see consequences, and it's going to get worse."

Hostility increased in recent years

All of this is happening just four years after Slovenia's Constitutional Court established marriage equality for LGBTQ+ people.

Two years later, it guaranteed access to in vitro fertilization treatment to same-sex couples.

Both Mursec and lawyer Rajgelj said anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has increased since those rights were enshrined in law.

There has also been a corresponding upswing in verbal and physical attacks — and they fear that the situation will deteriorate further under the new government.

But there are also more optimistic voices. Miha Lobnik founded the LGBTQ+ campaign organization Legebitra in the late 1990s. He now serves as Slovenia's Advocate of the Principle of Equality, working to represent people who have suffered discrimination.

Lobnik believes the new government may have been simply delivering a quick win for the far-right elements of its support base.

"I would not be too worried at this point," he said. "It might turn out to have been a few signals to calm down the base of the very right-wing voters, but which will not cause serious harm to people's rights."

Preventing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric going 'mainstream'

Lobnik cautioned, however, that anti-LGBTQ+ messages should not become "dominant and mainstreamed," putting at risk the "more accepting and tolerant society that Slovenia has become" over the past 30 years.

That warning took on extra significance after a proposal by Zoran Stevanovic, speaker of the National Assembly, to ban the flying of flags "for which there is no legal basis."

Stevanovic claimed that displaying banners such as the rainbow flag "further deepens any polarization of a divided society."

Although it has been in office for less than a month, the government that Stevanovic's far-right, populist Resnica party supports appears to be doing more than most to promote and deepen divisions in Slovenia.

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