The article deals with the comparison of the characteristics, experiences and perceptions of everyday life of gays and lesbians living in rural and urban areas of Slovenia. We focus on the following thematic aspects: (1) coming out; (2) intimate partnerships; (3) the access and the use of gay infrastructure; (4) violence against gays and lesbians. The article also addresses and discusses the urban/rural divide as a Western construct that might not be completely applicable to other social and cultural contexts. Taking Slovenia as an example, this article questions theself-evidence of rural/urban divide as an analytical concept. On the basis of our research we conclude that this concept requires continuous revisions and re-interpretations in a concrete social and cultural context(s). The characteristics of gay and lesbian everyday life either in rural or in urban context in Slovenia lead to the conclusion that even within a specific social and cultural context, the concept of urban/rural divide should be used carefully, taking into account complexities of everyday lives and various factors that influence them.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32494685
We estimated seroprevalence of 11 high-risk (hr) HPV types and four low-risk (lr) HPV types among 20-64 years old Slovenian women participating in the population-based cervical cancer screening program. Serum samples from 3259 women were tested for HPV type-specific antibodies with a multiplexed pseudovirion-based serological assay (PsV-Luminex). Seropositivity for any of the 11 hr-HPV types 59.2%, and any of the four lr-HPV types 33.1%. Antibodies against at least one of the four vaccine HPV types (HPV 6, 11, 16, 18) were detected in 40.8% women. The lifetime sexual exposure to genital HPV types is substantial, emphasising the need for HPV vaccination. The results are very important for informed decision in prevention and control of HPV infections.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3152357
The article deals with the process of the “secularization” of the Roman Catholic Church and its attempts to secure exclusionary patriarchal and traditional values and interpretations in the context of issues pertaining to sexual citizenship. Taking two case studies as examples – the recent Family Code debate in Slovenia and the Health Education in Croatia – it shows how the Church and its satellite civil society organizations increasingly refrain from using “biblical discourse”, substituting it with what appears as a rational, scientific discourse molded into reassuring and populist common-sense statements. In such a way, the Church is secularizing its discourse in order to “clericalize” society. Furthermore, it is successfully reinventing the issues of family and marriage as an ideological battleground of contemporary cultural wars in post-socialist societies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1033069