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Pride Week Begins in Belgrade 25 Years After First Pride, With LGBT+ Demands Still Unmet
🇷🇸 Serbia /Culture & Society

Pride Week Begins in Belgrade 25 Years After First Pride, With LGBT+ Demands Still Unmet

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

Translated from Serbian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Belgrade Pride Week will mark 25 years since the city’s first Pride march, where more than 40 participants were injured in violence.
  • The central march will start Saturday at 4 p.m. from Manjež Park.
  • Organizers say authorities have not met longstanding demands on same-sex partnerships, transgender rights and anti-LGBT+ violence.

Belgrade’s Pride Week returns under the slogan “There Is Room for All of Us,” the same words used for the city’s first Pride attempt 25 years ago. That 2001 event became known as the “Bloody Pride” after attackers assaulted participants and clashed with police, injuring more than 40 people.

The slogan of this year's Pride is 'There Is Room for All of Us.' It was also the slogan in 2001, when the first Pride in Belgrade was attempted, but unfortunately, because of the widespread violence, we call it the 'Bloody Pride,' in which more than 40 participants were injured.

— Bojan LazićLazić recalled the violence surrounding Belgrade’s first Pride event in 2001.

The anniversary program will culminate on Saturday, when the main event begins at Manjež Park at 4 p.m. and participants set off on a Pride march. Organizers say the event will again focus on demands that LGBT+ groups have raised for years.

Bojan Lazić of the Belgrade Pride organizing committee said the priorities include adopting a law on same-sex partnerships, improving transgender rights and prosecuting people responsible for violence against LGBT+ people. He said parliamentarians had repeatedly tried to bring the same-sex partnership law to a vote, but the governing majority had rejected those efforts.

When it comes to this year's Pride demands, they are the same as in previous years and many years before. The authorities have not fulfilled any of the LGBT+ community's demands for years.

— Bojan LazićLazić said organizers continue to press for legal and safety measures.

The transgender-rights demands address administrative discrimination and restricted access to medical care. Organizers also want authorities to prosecute all forms of violence against LGBT+ people.

The slogan 'There Is Room for All of Us' is a fundamental message suggesting that the question of having a place in this society remains, and perhaps more than ever, limited.

— Danica VučenićVučenić described the anniversary slogan as a warning about the community’s continuing exclusion.

Journalist Danica Vučenić, this year’s Pride patron, said the anniversary should not be treated only as a commemoration. She described the slogan as a message that space in Serbian society remains restricted and called the event part of an unfinished human-rights struggle. She said this year’s Pride should offer solidarity and care, while also continuing the fight for a society “in which there is room for all of us.”

It is part of the struggle because we need a society in which there is room for all of us.

— Danica VučenićVučenić said Pride should combine solidarity with continued human-rights activism.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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