Civil society continued supporting LGBT people fleeing Ukraine. The opening of the Pride Festival addressed the lack of adequate protection awarded to LGBTIQ+ asylum seekers in Slovenia.

(see also under Bias-motivated Violence; and Freedom of Assembly)

Legebitra documented 17 cases of bias-motivated speech in 2023.

TransAkcija documented 25 cases of direct bias-motivated speech in 2023. TransAkcija reported an additional 17 cases of direct bias-motivated speech where the persons reporting were witnesses to the event, and 27 cases where the reported bias-motivated speech was in the media or other public messaging.

The day before the Pride march, the Slovenian Democratic Youth (SDM) party launched the ‘Two Sexes, One Truth’ campaign which states that there are “only men and women ‘’ and strongly opposes the legal gender recognition (LGR) law reform. The SDM’s press statement alleges that LGBT+ communities prioritise “the indoctrination of children based on gender theory” and equates this with “psychological abuse”. The statement also reads that defying the gender binary “harms society as a whole”.

(See also under Freedom of Assembly)

Several hate crimes were recorded again this year, but victims remain reluctant to report incidents to the authorities.

Legebitra documented a total of nine hate crimes and three cases of vandalism this year.

As of 27 November, TransAkcija documented 77 cases of reporting of direct transphobic violence or discrimination by a victim of violence, and an additional 47 cases where the person reporting the violence was a witness to the attack.

Several people were assaulted and organisers and venues were targeted before, during, and after the Ljubljana Pride march on 17 June and the Maribor Pride march on 16 September (see more under Freedom of Assembly).

Pride organisers expressed serious concern that at the Ljubljana march, the police failed to intervene in any of the attacks, failed to identify, detain, or stop the perpetrators, and discouraged the victims from reporting, saying such attacks are “just the way it is’’ on the day of Pride. Several civil society organisations condemned the police’s lack of action, called for hate crimes to be recorded, investigated, and perpetrators held to account, and demanded firmer responses from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior, the former taking three days to react and the latter not making any statements. A few days after Pride, LGBTIQ+ organisations held a press conference about the attacks, warning about the increase in hate. Several passersby made anti-LGBT remarks.

In early July, the Commission for Petitions, Human Rights and Equal Opportunities convened an emergency meeting on homophobic and transphobic violence, concluding that the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities should prepare and adopt the National Strategy for LGBTIQ+ people.

In late July, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities held a meeting with LGBTIQ+ organisations on how to best respond to the increase in anti- LGBT hate crimes. The Ministry also discussed the National Strategy for LGBTIQ+ people as part of this effort (see more under Equality and Non-discrimination).

The government adopted an amendment to the Penal Code which would increase sanctions on hate crimes based on the victim’s sexual orientation and a number of other non-GIGESC grounds.

One of the leading right wing media websites posted an article about a child who came out as trans. The article named the school, quoted the principal, and shared other potentially identifying information, which was a violation of the child’s right to privacy and protection from media. The parents are now in a legal battle regarding this situation.

A pedagogy student, who was doing a two-week internship at a primary school in Maribor, became a target of transphobic harassment and hate speech in April, with parents calling for her dismissal because of her trans identity. The media widely reported reported on the case. Civil society organisations and the primary school stood in support of the teacher. She, however, did not finish her internship.

In October, State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Dan Juvan (MDDSZ) committed to the preparation and publication of the country’s first National Strategy for the Equality of LGBTIQ+ Persons and to engage in extensive consultations with civil society. The move follows up on the call of the Parliamentary Commission for Petitions, Human Rights, and Equal Opportunities in 2022 that the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities should prepare and adopt a strategy. The strategy is expected in 2024.

The amendments of the Family Code, which introduced marriage equality and equal adoption rights in 2022, entered into force on 1 February. Slovenia is now the first country in the former socialist bloc that has marriage equality in place. Several politicians and Slovenia’s President welcomed this important milestone (see here, here, and here). Marriage equality was introduced thanks to the Constitutional Court’s ruling in July 2022.

345 couples in a registered partnership transformed their legal status to marriage before the 31 July deadline.

Slovenia joined the European Commission’s infringement proceedings against Hungary over its anti-LGBT legislation.

The nine-day Ljubljana Pride Festival kicked off on 9 June and the Pride march was held on 17 June. This year’s motto was ‘More Communities, One Goal’. The march gathered approximately 3500 people. The Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities joined the event and also published a supportive statement. Minister for a Solidary Future Simon Maljevac, the first openly gay minister, was also present. For the first time, Slovenia’s President held a speech at the march.

On the eve of Pride, a man threw a bottle and broke the window of a bar that displayed a rainbow flag, and which is owned by a prominent LGBTIQ+ rights activist. Several Pride participants were attacked before, during and after the march (see here, here, and here). Some were attacked with eggs while marching, which was filmed and gathered countless hate comments online, including death threats. Some counter-demonstrators chanted anti-LGBT slogans, including “there are only two genders”.

A young woman carrying a rainbow flag was assaulted at a bar. Several rainbow flags were burnt around the city, which the perpetrators filmed and shared on social media. Human rights organisations and venues hosting events were also targeted (see also under Bias-motivated Violence). The Pride organisers shared that such incidents had not happened for years and advised participants to take off Pride-related accessories before and after Pride events. The Prime Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Ombudsperson condemned the violence.

The Pride march in Maribor, held on 20 September with the motto ‘From Laws to Society’, was also attacked. Counter- protesters were chanting anti-LGBT slogans, assaulted several people, including a well-known LGBTIQ+ activist who was taken to hospital. After the march, several others were attacked, verbally harassed, and eggs were thrown at them.

The Minister for a Solidary Future, Minister of Culture, the President, the Ombudsperson, Maribor’s mayor, civil society and others condemned the attacks (see here, here, here).

The Ombudsperson established that a lesbian woman was discriminated against by her gynaecologist, who refused to give her medically assisted reproduction care after an IVF treatment abroad. The doctor filed a conscientious objection claim with Slovenia’s Medical Association, but the Association did not support the claim.

The interdisciplinary group on trans healthcare, set up by the Ministry of Health and the University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana in 2020, met once this year. Communication with civil society improved this year.

In 2022, the National Institute of Public Health stated that they support the implementation of ICD-11, but no changes have taken place since.

Accessing medications became more difficult this year and this has impacted Nebido access as well – hormones need to be picked up at GP’s practices, instead of simply at pharmacies.

One of the two endocrinologists working at the University Clinic Centre in Ljubljana left, leading to longer delays for trans persons initially accessing hormones in the country.

(See also under Bias-motivated Speech)

On the day of the Pride march on 17 June, 18 civil society organisations held a press conference and launched an online petition calling on the Minister of Interior to amend Article 37 of the Rulebook on the Enforcement of the Civil Registry Act and delete the sentence that requires trans people to acquire a certificate from a “medical professional” and proving that they had “changed sex”. As of November, 2,700 people signed the petition. With the removal of the passage, Slovenia would join 11 other European countries that provide LGR on the basis of self-determination and in a simple administrative procedure. The working group on LGR finalised its analysis of the legal situation back in 2022, but the Ministry of Interior has stalled the process since.

This year again, the Ombudsperson’s annual report called for a reform to ensure legal gender recognition procedures are based on self-determination.

In June, the Slovenian Democratic Youth (SDM) party launched the ‘Two Sexes, One Truth’ campaign, opposing legal gender recognition law reform and non-binary identities (see more under Bias-motivated Speech).

In July Legebitra, Parada ponosa, ŠKUC and the DIH met with the General Deputy Director of the Police, who pledged to introduce special police information points during the next Pride parade, which will be positioned around Ljubljana and Maribor and will enable LGBTIQ+ persons or anyone who has been subjected to homophobic and/or transphobic violence, to submit a report on the spot with appropriate professional support. He also committed to reviewing existing training curricula, to ensure police are educated on topics regarding different minorities. It was agreed that it is necessary to include LGBTIQ+ organisations and their knowledge in the implementation of police training.

Legebitra carried out a public opinion research on the acceptance of rainbow families in Slovenia. The results showed that there is 45% support for rainbow families in Slovenia, 36% have a negative attitude towards rainbow families and 19% are undecided.