The City of Ljubljana actively follows the principles of equality, inclusivity and accessibility which are reflected in all our policies. Special attention is dedicated to all those who are particularly vulnerable due to their particular individual circumstances. These include all those who continue to suffer misunderstanding, prejudice or unfair treatment because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.
The main goal of our activities is to change broader social attitudes to the LGBT community. We would like society to become accessible to all – including to same-sex oriented and transgender people. We are attempting to reach this goal in two ways, by supporting NGOs that work in this field (via co-financing and supplying premises for programme implementation), and through diverse awareness-raising activities, programmes and public events.
Discrimination and stigmatisation due to sexual orientation remain a feature of the everyday lives of LGBT. Thus, as part of various co-financed programmes, Ljubljana enables personal counselling and information, lectures and workshops and forms of mutual support in diverse groups, in the health protection field also support in preventing HIV/AIDS. We also support various events – for example, the City is the Patron of the annual Gay Pride parade, and last year we were co-organisers of an international EGLSF conference. We assist NGOs through the possibility to use City premises and co-finance their public work.
The second specific goal is to raise public awareness of those expelled to the margins. Following the defeat of the Family Code in the referendum in 2012 we became more strongly engaged and decided to publish the Rainbow Ljubljana booklet, in which all information on the LGBT community in Ljubljana and Slovenia generally was collected, and we established the certificate LGBT friendly certificate, we set up an LGBT certificate website, and we regularly publish news about activities in this field. To mark major events – such as the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (17 May) and at the time of the Pride parade in June each year – the Rainbow flag, a symbol of the LGBT community, flies from City Hall. In this way we seek to raise public awareness as broadly as possible and contribute to greater tolerance for others.
Both of these goals are also included in the Strategy for the Development of Social Care in the City of Ljubljana 2013–2020, where NGOs actively co-operated in preparation of the Strategy. In this Strategy, the City of Ljubljana committed to support new and existing social care programmes for LGBT, programmes for parents of LGBT individuals, educational programmes for destigmatisation of the LGBT in public institutes and programmes for raising awareness in schools.
In 2013 the City's Ljubljana Tourism public institute (in co-operation with NGOs) introduced a tab on its website for LGBT tourists, which showcases the LGBT scene in Ljubljana, LGBT-friendly venues and events (e.g. Pink week). www.visitljubljana.com/en/visitors/poigroup/entertainment/lgbtq-ljubljana
Our good practices have been received with enthusiasm beyond our national borders. The City is a member of the Rainbow Cities Network and we have presented our activities at various international conferences (EGLSF, WHO, Taiex, ESCWR).