ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the time in a specific context of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and its historical and current developments of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements and sexuality/queer studies. It aims to question the construction and conceptualisation of sexuality and LGBTQ activism in contemporary Central and Eastern European countries. The question of CEE locality plays a significant role in gathered analyses. This local geotemporal dimension of sexual politics problematises, usually taken for granted, the Western/colonial dichotomy and also the unified notion of 'Western activism', dominated by the Anglo-American model. In CEE countries, and also in some Nordic and perhaps other non-Western countries, the term 'queer' is often used to express identity politics, and becomes a bone of contention/battle between local queer theorists on the one hand, and on the other local communities and activists, who use the term as another, 'new' name for 'lesbian and gay' or often use it in the commercial context.