B Excursion 2: Queer Prague

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Michal Pitoňák

Tuesday, April 11 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Prague has been central European node of sexual diversity and freedom for over a century, it is today well known as either European “sex-capital”, “porn-industry hot point” or simply as “gay” city. Our excursion will provide a peak into its vivid queer history as well as into the taste of former persecution of “homosexuals”. How did non-heterosexual people adjust their spatial lives to evade persecution in the past. How did they socialize without the internet? We will examine and discuss changes that occurred in the city and experience how non-heterosexuals lived their liminal lives yet being monitored by authorities during the communist regime. Some of the places we visit still exist while some of them will be called to mind only through the narration. We will end the excursion by a discussion in one of many popular “gay venues”, allowing us to experience a non-heteronormative contemporary space and hopefully address and discuss some of more-less pervasive stereotypes that revolve around these spaces.