The Political History of Male Homosexuality

 I would like to point your attention to the new book "Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia" by Frank Dota. Published by Fraktura, Croatia
 

"The book Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia by historian, journalist, translator and activist Frank Dota is a significant step forward in the study of an apparently marginal phenomenon. With the book, based on diligent archival work and with rare intellectual and moral responsibility, Dota has filled a gap that our historiography has insufficiently – or not at all – addressed. The importance of Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia is not exhausted by this and is not reduced to the topic contained in the title.

The evolution of the Yugoslav state and society, from post-war totalitarianism, through liberalization and soft authoritarianism, to the relatively free 1980s, is reflected in the mirror of the fate of male homosexuals, who were initially stigmatized, exposed to contempt and criminal prosecution, and then gradually, however reluctantly, accepted. To this extent, Dota's Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia exposes the revisionist narratives present in a part of our public. Namely, the stigma and fate of male homosexuals in Yugoslavia in the 1950s and 1960s did not differ significantly from the stigma and fate in the democratic West.

Finally, The Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia also has an activist dimension. It addresses not only homosexuals but also all who feel themselves victims of prejudice of any kind. Frank Dota uses it to call for Freedom, because in a society in which homosexuals are not free, in which, therefore, the minority is not free, the heterosexual majority cannot be free either."
 

The illustration which they used on the cover of the book, I originally created for the article "Homo, homine, homić,” in Start magazine in 1980, one of the largest mainstream magazines in Socialist Yugoslavia. This was one of the few articles written about homosexuality at this time.

The designer of the book cover, Ivan Stanišić, created an unusual and effective cover.