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Compiled By GayToday
Washington, D. C.--Dusan Maljkovic, a 23-year-old student and human rights
advocate in Belgrade, thinks NATO's attack on his country is "madness."
John Aravosis, a 35-year-old Internet consultant and civil rights advocate
in Washington, DC, stands by the troops.
Yet in the last week, while bombs literally flew over Maljkovic's Belgrade apartment, the two activists met on the Internet and became fast friends. Aravosis started the dialogue by emailing Maljkovic after finding his name on a press release. "I thought it would be interesting to see how a Serb felt about the bombing," says Aravosis. "And since Dusan and I both advocate for gay rights, I was curious if maybe we had something in common, in spite of the war."
Maljkovic is on the executive committee of the Campaign Against Homophobia, an organization reportedly funded by the Soros Foundation, whose mission is to collect data on anti-gay hate crimes and human rights violations in Yugoslavia. Aravosis maintains an extensive Web site about the Matthew Shepard murder (www.wiredstrategies.com/shepard.html). Maljkovic told Aravosis that Gay Serbians face employment discrimination. "People can be fired because it is found out that they are gay, usually with some other explanation," Maljkovic wrote. Aravosis ran an online campaign for a sailor discharged because he's gay. Maljkovic explained that Serbians face discrimination based on HIV status. "Recently, a man died of AIDS outside the hospital, just because the ambulance team refused to treat him upon learning of the nature of his illness....[and a] seven-year-old boy was unable to attend classes in a Belgrade primary school because of protests by his fellow-pupils' parents who learned that the boy was HIV+," Maljkovic emailed Aravosis. Aravosis' clients include a number of AIDS organizations. Then, something startling happened. "Four hours after Dusan told me of that little boy kicked out of school for having AIDS," Aravosis explains, "I met the mother of Ryan White at a reception." Ryan White, an early AIDS advocate, died in 1990 at the age of 18. "Ryan was kicked out of school just like that boy in Belgrade," says Aravosis, "the coincidence really blew me away." While he is still an ardent supporter of NATO's intervention, Aravosis says that getting to know Maljkovic has affected his view of the war. "I still support dropping the bombs till the Kosovars are free," explains Aravosis, "but now I don't just worry about our troops, I worry about Dusan as well. The Internet gave my enemy a human face." |
