Danijel Kalezic has spent nearly two decades in LGBTQI activism across the Western Balkans, from helping establish Montenegro Pride to leading the process of preparing and adopting the country’s Registered Partnership Law and initiating efforts for legal gender recognition. Now, as Executive Co-Director of LGBTI Equal Rights Association (ERA), he leads a network of 85 member organisations spanning nine countries across the Western Balkans and Turkey.
ERA was one of the charity partners for City for LGBT+ 2023, and the experience proved significant beyond the funding itself. “I remember when I came back from that event, I felt there are so many people supporting us, supporting our work. We’re not alone. I’d never experienced something like that before – people supporting you directly on this level of actual support,” shares Danijel.
In this conversation, Danijel reveals how the funding and solidarity from City for LGBT+ enabled ERA to re-establish vital caucuses for women loving women and trans, non-binary, and intersex communities, strengthen their data-driven advocacy approach, and provide life-saving support from pro-bono legal aid to shelter connections across the region.
What is the current context for LGBTQI rights in the Western Balkans and Turkey at the moment and how does it differ between the different countries in the region?
The current context is not the best at the moment. In this region, we’ve always had struggles, but in the last 10 years we’ve also had some improvements. But as you know, the overall political situation in the world is not going in favour of any marginalised group or women’s rights. That is something that is happening in our region as well at the moment, alongside serious funding cuts – not only USAID but other donors are also making funding cuts.
So communities are faced with oppression not only coming from society and people who are homophobic or transphobic in the general population, but in most countries we are also faced with increased oppression by decision makers and politicians. The movement is also experiencing an unbelievable situation of lacking capacity to fight for its rights at the moment because the funding has mostly gone.
So it depends from country to country, but the overall situation is not good due to all these trends and the fact that in all the countries we have in power those who would, if they could, actually cut our rights completely, but luckily they cannot at the moment.
How does the work that ERA does address the challenges that people in the region face?
We’re in constant touch with our member organisations in every country on a daily basis. We respond to their needs as much as we can. What we’re actually doing is gathering as much data on the situation as we can because we always want our work to be based on the needs of the organisations, not on any beliefs of staff members or our team.
Then we use the data to communicate with donors, to advocate on the European or global level for the specific needs of organisations or movements in each country. We support their work in many different ways through trainings, consultations, education, connecting with institutions, making bridges between organisations for knowledge sharing or mutual support.
Also, through sub-granting that we provide to our member organisations, we’re supporting the work of our two caucuses – the Women Loving Women caucus and the TNBI caucus – as independent initiatives of specific communities within our network.
There are some things we do regularly, like advocating or providing subgrants or providing training, but the rest of our work is fluid because it depends on the specific needs at any given moment of our member organisations and communities we’re working for.
Could you share more information about the caucuses for those who don’t know what they might be? And why is it important for organisations and the movement to convene in this way?
For us at ERA, it’s extremely important to base all decisions on what specific communities need. Within this LGBTIQ+ framework, across all these identities, there are several which are traditionally and historically underrepresented and much more oppressed. We’re all oppressed, but there are specific needs. That’s why it was quite important for us to make sure we’re responding to the needs of TNBI persons or women loving women in the right way.
That’s why we decided as a network to establish these two caucuses to make sure all decisions ERA takes regarding their human rights are based on their specific needs and opinions. That’s how we work.
You were one of the charity partners for City for LGBT+ back in October 2023. What was that experience like for you, and what were some of your highlights from the event?
I was quite new at ERA at that moment. So for me personally, it was an amazing experience because I found myself in a group of unknown people, most of whom didn’t have any relations with our region but who really wanted to support our work and our cause. That energy was amazing and it was really, really emotional for me.
I was sharing my story there that night and feeling that kind of support directly. It’s not only about the funds. Of course, those funds were extremely important for our organisation and community, and supported our work and improved our initiatives. But on a personal level, I felt such strong support that encouraged me to continue.
I remember when I came back from that event, I felt there were so many people supporting us, supporting our work. We’re not alone. I’d never experienced something like that before – people supporting you directly on this level of actual support.
At that moment, ERA was struggling a lot in terms of funding. Even at that time, it helped us enormously. It helped us improve our work, support our communities better, even help more people on the team. So it was really helpful and an amazing experience and I’d really like to use this opportunity to say thank you one more time.
“I’d never experienced something like that before – people supporting you directly on this level of actual support.”
Since that event, what has been some of the specific work that the funding has made possible and the impact of that work?
The TNBI Caucus initiatives and Women Loving Women Caucus were basically re-established with this initiative and support from that funding. Our work has improved. We also used the opportunity to improve our general internal functioning at ERA to establish a system, an ecosystem, because we’re all working online from different countries.
We also used the opportunity to improve our work behind the scenes. Within the framework of that project, we reconsidered our internal fundraising strategy, but we also continue to collaborate and respond to the needs of our member organisations on a daily basis. There are so many different things this funding helped us actually implement and dedicate resources and time to, to improve our work.
Do you have a story from someone or a member organisation that really illustrates the impact of the work that you’re doing?
I’ll start like this. In collaboration with our Serbian member, we’re providing pro-bono legal aid to victims of violence. So I can’t identify one person, but in a country like Serbia, where physical violence is ongoing, unfortunately, it’s important for every victim to have pro-bono legal aid provided regularly. So that’s one thing.
Through one of our sub-granting programmes at ERA, we also supported a shelter in Skopje, North Macedonia. In these times of oppression and increased violence, this is also very, very important.
One personal story: we supported one lesbian woman to participate in a lesbian conference in Rome. She’s extremely exposed to violence – an ongoing victim of violence, unfortunately – and we supported her participation at the conference so she could advocate and establish more contacts and support for her and her initiatives.
We’ve also been able to connect victims who contact us directly with shelters across the region, which is extremely important given we only have two shelters for victims of violence in nine countries.
Unfortunately, as you can see, I’m talking about violence a lot. I’m talking about legal aid. I’m talking about shelters. But that’s the most urgent need of our communities.
What are your hopes for the future of the LGBTQI movement in your region?
We hope to make the movement resilient. We hope to continue building a movement which won’t give up at any moment. It’s not time to be in any kind of defensive position. Even though our oppressors want to put us there, it’s time for a fight. It’s time to fight for the protection of our people, for our community and it will pass.
“It’s not time to be in any kind of defensive position. Even though our oppressors want to put us there, it’s time for a fight.”
Our community has been in this place so many times. We’ve always survived. We always keep fighting. It will pass and we’ll be in a much, much, much better place. This can’t last. Definitely. We just need to get through it and keep fighting.