Projects submitted by organizations representing LGBTI people to a financial subsidy program for disadvantaged groups run by the Culture Ministry will not receive financial support. The executive director of the Inakosť initiative Martin Macko told the SITA press agency that not one project had received support, despite these projects being evaluated as worthy of subsidies by an expert evaluation committee. According to the Inakosť initiative, not to grant subsidies is a personal decision by the Minister of Culture Ľubica Laššáková. Moreover, the Culture Ministry has changed the conditions for granting subsidies in the future so that support for LGBTI projects will not be possible at all.
According to the ministry, LGBTI organizations can still sign up their projects for the second round of the call. However, this call is no longer opened for the funding of festivals, their accompanying events or websites. All LGBTI projects focused on these areas. Projects such as the Pride parade or the Slovak Queer Film Festival, which have been funded by the ministry grants since 2008, will thus no longer be eligible to apply for similar funding.
Compared to other European countries, there is no state support for LGBTI-based organizations. Nevertheless, according to Macko, LGBTI organizations have had no problems receiving subsidies for their projects in a free and fair competition with a transparent quality-based evaluation process.
