Belgrade Pride vows EuroPride will happen despite threats of violence

Belgrade Pride 2021 was held on September 18, 2021, with the slogan “Love is the Law.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

EuroPride, a pan-European Pride festival that takes place in a different city every year, is scheduled to take place in Belgrade, Serbia, from September 12 – 18. But plenty of locals, including the country’s president, want to keep it from happening.

On August 14, thousands of religious and nationalist protestors marched through the streets of downtown Belgrade, carrying anti-LGBTQ banners and chanting slogans such as, “We don’t want a gay parade,” and “Keep your hands off our children.”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced at a press conference that EuroPride would be canceled, saying that “at this moment, the state is pressured by numerous problems,” adding that EuroPride could possibly be held during “happier times.”

But Nikola Brkljač, one of the coordinators for Belgrade Pride, which is sponsoring EuroPride, said it would definitely not be canceled.

“Vučić cannot ban an event of which he is not the organizer,” Brkljač told LGBTQ Nation.

Brkljač knows perfectly well that Serbia isn’t the most LGBTQ-friendly country in the world. Since 2018, the Belgrade Pride Info Center has been attacked or seriously vandalized at least 15 times.

Indeed, in 2019, an anti-gay group of seven people tried to…

Read full story, and more, from Source: Belgrade Pride vows EuroPride will happen despite threats of violence