Triumphant Belgrade Pride

By Melanie Nathan, September 20, 2015.

Several hundred  people participated today in a Pride Parade, held by LGBT activists in the Serbian Capital of Belgrade.   Not unlike the genesis of Pride parades across the world, including in the USA, Belgrade Pride was held with controversy and with danger to all who participated.  While times have changed in most Western countries, the trajectory for countries like Serbia is unknown – however with thanks to this open forum,  the future is not without hope. The support of authorities in protecting marchers was key to the success of this Pride.

Belgrade PrideThreats of disruption by far-right groups in past years had forced the government to cancel this event. In 2010, during Belgrade’s first-ever gay parade, hard-line nationalists attacked participants and clashed with police, wounding 150 people.   Last year was the first year that the Pride Parade resumed in Belgrade.

Today, hundreds of riot police were deployed in the city center,  on standby to protect against attacks.  There were several armored and water cannon vehicles parked at main crossings in the downtown area where roads were closed to traffic since the early morning.

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 10.42.53 AMThere were no reports of violence at the Belgrade event. The atmosphere was festive as supportive community waved rainbow flags and carried colorful balloons.

It has been reported that several men wearing masks were arrested by police on suspicion of planning to attack participants in the parade and approximately 50 people were detained.  Nearby counter protests were held.

Marchers were joined by Serbia’s European Integration Minister Jadranko Joksimovic, Culture and Information Minister Ivan Tasovac, and Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali and  the American Ambassador Hon. Michael Kirby.

Well done Serbia’s Belgrade LGBTQI community – the world is watching and your global family is with you!

@BelgradePride

Belgrade Pride 2


3 thoughts on “Triumphant Belgrade Pride

  1. Reblogged this on Fairy JerBear's Queer/Trans News, Views & More From The City Different – Santa Fe, NM and commented:
    Yeah Belgrade!

  2. Pingback: Purple Roofs LGBT Travel Round-Up - September 21st | Purple Roofs Gay Travel Blog
  3. Pingback: Purple Roofs LGBT Travel Round-Up - September 21st

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s