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.
