Negotiating non-heteronormative identities in post-Soviet Belarus and Lithuania

ENThis chapter considers the narratives of sexual minority groups in two bordering post-Soviet states: Belarus and Lithuania. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted in 2014, the paper explores the culturally hybridised strivings of LGBT community along temporal (the Soviet and contemporary periods) and geo-political (national, Russian and Western) axes. It exposes the respondents’ narratives, whilst negotiating their identities and belonging in the diverging post-Soviet context. By doing this the chapter aims to question the teleological bias of existing theories of socio-cultural change and, drawing on the notion of ‘cultural identity’, points to a complex interplay of past and present, Western and local values and attitudes in the post-Soviet region. Although its main point of reference is the under-explored post-Soviet Belarusian and Lithuanian LGBT communities, the contribution can inform our understanding about cultural post-Soviet transformation more generally.