Miha Lobnik attended the conference of IGLYO (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth and Student Organization) in Pisa, Italy. At the conference on homophobia and fascism, young people from all over Europe learned more about the persecution of LGBT people during fascism and nazism. He met with young activists from all over Europe for the first time. Faced with different youth activism, he learned about different approaches on how young people were active at the time. He established close contacts with Belgians, and in the following year he became particularly familiar with the Belgian model of youth groups. Already at the end of 1997, a Belgian activist visited Slovenia and, in April 1998, organized a special seminar for the training of young activists within IGLYO in Antwerp: How to set up and lead youth LGBT groups.

After returning from a seminar on the formation of youth groups, in May 1998 Miha Lobnik and Tadej Reissner began to form the founding board of the Legebitra group. Jasna Magič and Maja were invited to participate. The founding document “The Rules of the Legebitra Group” was adopted by the four of them on June 10, 1998 in the garden of Lobnik’s home. Steering Committee meetings were held at their homes during the first year.

On July 4, 1998, Legebitra members of the founding committee attended the Pride Parade in Vienna for the first time in history, as a group, at an LGBT event. They were wearing special, first T-shirts bearing the Legebitra logo and a larger canvas with the inscription Legebitra.

In the 1998/1999 academic year, the Legebitra group carried out a total of 22 activities, mostly talking and socializing, some sports excursions, joint film watching and a final picnic by the Sava River, which also marked the first anniversary of the group’s founding.

During the 1999/2000 season, the Legebitra group established a new way of informing their growing number of members. Instead of posters, the Legebitra’s program began to be communicated to its members by sending a monthly bulletin called Legebitra’s announcements (Legebitrina oznanila) to their home addresses. The bulletin soon expanded to include various other topics. At that time, the Legebitra’s program regularly included four activities a month: two debates, one recreational trip and one social afternoon, and in May 2000 the season ended with a picnic by the Sava River.

In 2001, Miha Lobnik and his two colleagues founded the Association of friends of Legebitra. The association, which was registered in the Register of Associations at the Ljubljana Administrative Unit in December 2001, was established with the aim of supporting the strengthening of the group’s activities and the development of other programs – counseling, support and advocacy for LGBT youth.

On July 6, 2002, the Association Legebitra, in special cooperation with the then mayor of the City of Ljubljana, Vika Potočnik, and with the ŠKUC Magnus Section, the ŠKUC LL Section, with the Roza klub, the Association Out in Slovenia and with the Klub Libero, coordinated the second Pride Parade in Slovenia. People walked with a large Legebitra banner at the head of the Pride Parade. They went from Metelkova to Prešeren Square, where the gathering was addressed by Miha Lobnik, President of the Association of friends of Legebitra.

On the 15th of July 2003 Legebitra partnered with ŠKUC Magnus, ŠKUC LL and Roza klub to file a proposal of Law on Civil Union into governmental procedure, which would provide the same rights to same – sex couples, with the exception of joint adoption.

In 2006, with the support of COC Netherlands and the City of Ljubljana, an information center was opened on Trubarjeva Street in Ljubljana. The public opening of new premises was on January 18, 2006. The association then began counseling, prevention and advocacy in the wider LGBT-field. At the same location, the activities of the Youth Center Legebitra, the Counseling and self-help program for LGBT-persons, testing for HIV and STIs, and  activities of other hosting organisations are taking place today.

In June 2006 Legebitra employed the first person part-time.

 

 

In March 2007, Legebitra acquired the status of a humanitarian organization, which can be obtained by organizations that have appropriate public importance and implement professionally based programs in the field of social and health care. At that time, the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Affairs concluded that Legebitra meets all the conditions.

In May 2007, a group of young people under the guidance of Jasna Magić from Legebitra, Primož Jamšek from Slovenian Philanthropy and Simona Muršec from the Center for Non-formal Education of Slovenia presented an innovative project for the promotion of diversity and acceptance titled Living Library – don’t judge a book by its cover!

 

Living Library (also known as Human Library) is a project which, in using the method of active dialogue, actively raises awareness and education on human rights and values and encourages discussion on prejudices and stereotypes in society. The method of Living library confronts the readers with their own prejudices and stereotypical ideas and offers a possibility to meet with their own stereotypes directly. The books in the Living Library are representatives of various minorities, socially deprived groups or those who face prejudices in their lives and are ready to talk about their experience. Today, Living Library is run by at least 16 non-governmental organizations all over Slovenia, connected into a national network of Living libraries.

Between 2009 and 2012, Legebitra closely followed and participated in the discussions of the working bodies of the committees of the National Assembly regarding the adoption of the new Family Code. In the original version, the Family Code equalized same-sex and heterosexual partnerships, but due to a disagreement in the coalition, the approved proposal introduced two separate communities, a marriage and a civil partnership which, apart from the name, would differ from each other only by the rights of same-sex couples to the joint adoption of children and the insemination with biomedical assistance. In 2012, the law was rejected at a referendum.

In August 2010, Legebitra became a member of the Slovenian Network of Volunteer Organizations, which was created in response to the need of individuals, organizations and society in promoting volunteering and recognizing the value of volunteering activities. Today, the network connects more than 1,500 organizations.

In January 2012, the Association Cultural, Informational and Counseling Center Legebitra joined CNVOS, an umbrella network of Slovenian NGOs, which brings together over 1,100 different associations, institutes and institutions.

In 2014, DIKE, a project aimed to empower LGBT people and NGOs for the elimination of systemic and structural discrimination, the strengthening of active citizenship, the rule of law, democracy and social justice, has come to life. It contained a series of activities aimed at strengthening the social partnership with relevant stakeholders (LGBT human rights activists, LGBT NGOs, other NGOs, national institutions at local and national level, academic sphere …). The project was coordinated by Legebitra.

DIKE is also very important because it developed the website www.lgbtpravice.si, as well as LGBT Legal Advisory Service and the Lawyers’ Network. Since the academic year 2017/2018, work of the LGBT Legal Advisory Service takes place within the framework of the Legal Advisory Service for the protection against discrimination, conducted at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, as an officially approved and accredited co-curricular activity at the University of Ljubljana.

 

 

In 2014, Legebitra begins to coordinate the implementation of training for obtaining the “LGBT Friendly” Certificate, awarded by the City of Ljubljana. Group of educators consist of Legebitra,  Transfeminist Initiative TransAkcija Institute, ŠKUC Association and Sladič & Resnik Law firm, d. o. o. By 2018 (included), 36 legal entities received the certificate, namely public institutions, public companies, private companies and NGOs.

In December 2014, United Left Party filed a new Amendment to the Marriage and Family Relations Act. It anticipated the Amendment of Article 3 of the Act, namely, that the definition of “marriage is a lawful arrangement of life partnership of husband and wife” to “marriage is a lawful arrangement of life partnership of two persons” and thus completely equalized same-sex and heterosexual partnerships. Legebitra monitored and participated in various stages of adopting the Amendment, which was subsequently rejected at the referendum.

In April 2015, Legebitra started to implement a 14-month multidisciplinary partner project “Response to HIV” in collaboration with Škuc Magnus, the DIH Association, the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Fever and Association for the Health of LGBT People from Norway Helseutvalget for Bedre Homohelse , with the financial assistance of the Norwegian Funds and the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy. The project has brought numerous novelties in the field of prevention and support. It has expanded the scope of testing for STIs (sexually transmitted infections); a crisis line for PEP (postexposure prophylaxis or protective antiretroviral therapy, which can prevent infection from HIV), and a specific Buddy program of individual support for people living with HIV, which also triggered a public debate on the introduction of PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis is a therapy with the purpose of preventing infection with HIV before and after a period of sexual activity of an individual, which poses a high risk of infection with the virus. It is an antiviral medicine, which prevents infection with HIV, with the intention that an individual’s HIV status remains negative after consistently taking medications).

At the end of 2015, one day after the Marriage and Family Relations Act was rejected in a referendum, then independent parliament member Jani Moderndorfer filed a Partnership Act, which, after being accepted, eliminated most of the inequalities for same-sex couples. However, there is still a difference in the name, the inaccessibility for same-sex couples for a joint adoption and a insemination ban for biomedical help for same-sex couples and single women. Passing of the law represented a major step forward, for which Legebitra has been striving ever since the first filing of the proposal of the Civil Union Act in 2003.

 

 

In 2017, the conference “Different Paths to Equality: Marriage Equality and Civil Unions” took place. The conference was an important milestone in activism for equality in Slovenia, since the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities was a partner in the DARE umbrella project and, in cooperation with Legebitra, co-organized an international conference devoted entirely to the position and struggle for the equality of LGBT – people.

In 2017, Legebitra became a member of ERA organization, which operates in the field of rights for LGBT people from the Western Balkans and Turkey.

 

January 1st, 2018: The first youth center in Slovenia for young LGBT-people opens its doors on Trubarjeva Street 76a. Although it primarily addresses the needs of young LGBT-people, everyone is welcome in the Youth Center Legebitra. YC Legebitra is part of the Network of Youth Centers Ljubljana.