In the centre of Ljubljana, on the prominent city streets, heterosexual couples feel free to share their affections, while publicly showing love in a same-sex couple is still often accompanied by nudgings, surprised stares or loud inappropriate comments. Despite the fact a lot has changed in the last years on the legal front, everyday stigmatisation of same-sex couples is still very much present in the general public.

Which is why this year for the holiday of love, we decorated window displays of prominently-located fashion shops with a big heart, surrounding two same-sex mannequins.

“The society still perceives same-sex couples differently, so we wanted to take the Valentine’s day as the opportunity to send a message love belongs to everyone, no matter the gender of the person we fall in love with,” said Lana Gobec, the president of Legebitra cultural, information and counselling centre.  

The rainbow heart carries the message Love is Love, because we wish for Valentine’s day to be the holiday for everyone with love in their hearts, no matter the sexual orientation. With an easily removable static sticker in the shape of heart we wish to say the sticker is easily removable, but the stigma, which same-sex couples carry, is not.

The shops, carrying our message (H&M, Mango, Nama, Maximarket, Lisca … ) were sent a letter of explanation and a request to keep the stickers on their window displays for a day. Follow our social media to see the response of individual shops. Like, share and celebrate love with us!

At Legebitra we wish you a happy, playful, loving Valentine’s day. Without stigma.

Photo: Anže Buh