After the dissolution of Arkadija, some of the activists and founders continued their efforts on bringing the issue of gay and lesbian rights to some social and legislative attention. It was also important to encourage and motivate the LGBT community in making the first steps towards visibility and stronger self-consciousness about themselves, their identity, needs and hopes.

	COWN I

This was done in two ways - one of them was setting up the organizational infrastructure (first lesbian organization Labris was formed in 1995) and the other was independent work of several activists, many of them for the first time involved in this type of activity.

Originally, the "Campaign against homophobia" was to give evidences to general public about the high level of homophobia in Serbian society. One of the first steps was monitoring the printed and electronic media in FRY and issuing the report which was intended to state cases of apparent homophobia.

The first of those reports was issued in 1998, with the aid of Fund of Open Society and Humanitarian Law Fund. It showcased cases of homophobic account is media, as well as documentation about activities of gay and lesbian groups, which at that time included several workshops about lesbian identity and some public statements regarding the issue of gay and lesbian rights in Serbia.

	GAYTO 1

Soon, however, the goals and results overgrew the initial plan. A group of enthusiastic activist felt it was time to go in public with something that would represent LGBT creativity and work in the best way.

This idea was materialized in conception of Gayto magazine, a queer-zine intended to bring works of gay and lesbian authors, regardless of their previous experience. The first issue of Gayto featured the variety of essays, ranging from sociological and philosophical works, medicine, fiction and poetry. By its unconventional design and format, the first Gayto issue tended to mark a difference in gay and lesbian literary production to this date.

	Hissing Sonnets, Theater Performance

In the meanwhile, the Novi Sad-based organization "New Age" decided to make a significant move towards greater visibility of gay and lesbian community, by convening the majority of gay and lesbian activist on the first Gay and Lesbian Conference, held in January 2000.

The other noteworthy event that same year happened in Belgrade. In a few days of July and August, the first LGBT cultural festival, dubbed "Coming Out with Nick - COWN" took place in downtown prestigious and hype club at that time, Industria. Apart from fact that it featured exhibitions such as "100 years of homosexuality in Germany", several well attended speaker-platforms and a theater performance "The Hissing Sonets" by Dušica Knežević, perhaps the most significant achievement of COWN was numerous crowd which gathered at one place for the first time and the sense of freedom and pride felt in the air. Surely, the unexpected dash of better days to come was merely a consequence of hope and belief that the long and dark days of oppression were coming to their end...

In September that same year, after the presidential election, the authoritarian regime was toppled over, which raised hopes among gay and lesbian community that better days were coming...

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