On December 14, 2012, K2.0 was set to launch our SEX issue, a print magazine with which we wished to open a frank, meaningful and political conversation about the most taboo of topics: sex. We also wanted to talk about gender identity, pleasure, queerness and the many cultural and legal shackles that constrict Kosovars’ freedom to love and exist freely.
At the event, at the Red Hall in the Palace of Youth and Sports, the participants and K2.0 staff were verbally and physically attacked by a group of men. While we held our discussion, a mob chanting homophobic slurs appeared, forcing us to cancel the party that was set to conclude the launch event for our magazine.
Ten years later, we want to hold the event that the homophobic mob denied us. In 2012, the SEX issue put sex, feminism and queerness on the map in Kosovo. It was our way of saying that free expression, sexual expression and gender expression in Kosovo existed and was there to stay.
As we commemorate what took place 10 years ago and celebrate the increasingly proud and powerful feminist and queer cultural activism that has followed, our message has evolved. We want to emphasize that as free people, we are here. And, despite decades of erasure and oppression — feminist and queer existence and resistence are an integral part of Kosovo’s history. Join us as we say: “we have always been here!”
