Zadar Clad in Colours of the Rainbow!

gay.hr

12 October 2006

The gay.hr portal reports that a group of queer activists decorated Zadar, on Tuesday night, with rainbow ribbons, thus marking October 11, the International Coming Out Day.

The action took place between 22:30 and 02:00 hours and proceeded without problem, although the activists ran into several police patrols. The ribbons were attached on building facades and posts on Kalelarga (Zadar�s main shopping and pedestrian area) and even the church of St. Mary was decorated.

The idea to use rainbow ribbons was first promoted by Q Association from Sarajevo. The emergence of kugA (Cultural-Street Gay Action) informal group, the street activism become one of the most vibrant branches of GLBTIQ activism in Croatia and the region.

For the Zadar-based �Queer� Initiative, the action is symbolic confrontation of sexual and gender minorities with the hetero-patriarchal society.

�The colours of the rainbow are symbolic and physical entry into the public space of the city, denied to the sexual and gender minorities, a space in which those minorities are, to put it mildly, treated as taboo�, says the public statement issued by �Queer�.

According to Queer, the action is also an expression of criticism towards those members of the LGBTIQ community who delude themselves that their sexual orientation is their exclusive private thing and who find it clever or desirable to meddle with politics.

�This only turns them into puppets of the hetero-patriarchal meanings and policies. Whether we want it or not, politics do interfere with our lives, sexual or gender performance capacities�, says the Initiative. �Our position, secured by our Otherness, helps us realize the oppression to which we are subjected demonstrates the oppressiveness of society in general, and to stop the oppression, we need radical change of existing situation. Nobody is Free Until Everybody is Free�.