Gay rights group calls for prevention of violence

-The Gay-Straight Alliance requests from the competent institutions to devote their attention to prevention and sanctioning of violence against LGBT persons, especially ahead and on the day of the gay Pride Parade and to do everything in their power to prevent last year’s violence from happening again. It is the state’s responsibility to deal with prevention and reduction of violence on a daily basis and not only to note that it exists and represents a threat to stability of the entire society, the Gay-Straight Alliance pointed out.-

Yes, it SHOUld be the govt's responsibility to prevent or at least reduce violence in the society, especially against members of a widely despised minority. but that is NOT how this let's-pretend-we're-democratic govt sees their role. instead of doing what is right, or just, they make their moves based on the minimum they HAVE to do in order to stay in good stead with their EU colleagues. "good" if we are wearing heavy blinders...

there is absolutely no strong desire there to protect the rights of minorities, esp.ly lgbt people. on the contrary, there are every day ambiguous and outright homophobic dictums from govt officials. the end result: Yeah, we have to allow and protect the parade in order to please our w euro colleagues, but you all know we are holding our noses...

in such an environment, where outright homophobic prejudice and hostility is promoted by much of the serbian elite, the violence is allowed, even facilitated. meanwhile, the govt officals look on, as (un)interested observers.

the history of the lgbt marches inside serbia is shameful!, even by balkan standards, and that's bad. the last one was finally sanctioned by the govt (for reasons already stated), and the result: a huge riot, where 100s were attacked, and scores hospitalized -- mainly police. what an irony! for once, they were doing what they were supposed to do -- protecting the people (lgbt and their supporters) in belgrade. so they became the target of extreme right-wing violence, all pretty predicatable in such a society, in such circumstances.

AND what has changed to make things any different, any better, this time?

you can't have it both ways. you can't feed/facilitate your right wing base, and then expect such a march to go forward without incident, without massive violence.

if govt leaders were smart, they'd bring in police officials and lgbt leaders from the democratic countries, and learn how a successful, even fun lgbt event can be facilitated. As in London, paris, berlin, san francisco, new york, or 100 other cities worldwide, at least.

but even deeper, there has to be a clear and loud call by the govt, that supports diversity and tolerance. otherwise, nothing will ever change or progress.

roberto frisco

I fully understand that if it's raining than it's Serbia's fault.
I fully understand that if it's not raining - than it's Serbia's fault.

I just don't understand that where is Serbia's fault if frogs say in the area "quack-quack" like European frogs do - and not "ribbit-ribbit" like they do it in America.

Wait, I see... There aren't bullfrogs in Serbia because they were ethically cleansed out by Milosevic, Mladic, Karadzic, Tadic, Jeremic, Sindjelic, Hrebeljanovic and of course Putin.

-The Gay-Straight Alliance requests from the competent institutions to devote their attention to prevention and sanctioning of violence against LGBT persons, especially ahead and on the day of the gay Pride Parade and to do everything in their power to prevent last year’s violence from happening again. It is the state’s responsibility to deal with prevention and reduction of violence on a daily basis and not only to note that it exists and represents a threat to stability of the entire society, the Gay-Straight Alliance pointed out.-

Yes, it SHOUld be the govt's responsibility to prevent or at least reduce violence in the society, especially against members of a widely despised minority. but that is NOT how this let's-pretend-we're-democratic govt sees their role. instead of doing what is right, or just, they make their moves based on the minimum they HAVE to do in order to stay in good stead with their EU colleagues. "good" if we are wearing heavy blinders...

there is absolutely no strong desire there to protect the rights of minorities, esp.ly lgbt people. on the contrary, there are every day ambiguous and outright homophobic dictums from govt officials. the end result: Yeah, we have to allow and protect the parade in order to please our w euro colleagues, but you all know we are holding our noses...

in such an environment, where outright homophobic prejudice and hostility is promoted by much of the serbian elite, the violence is allowed, even facilitated. meanwhile, the govt officals look on, as (un)interested observers.

the history of the lgbt marches inside serbia is shameful!, even by balkan standards, and that's bad. the last one was finally sanctioned by the govt (for reasons already stated), and the result: a huge riot, where 100s were attacked, and scores hospitalized -- mainly police. what an irony! for once, they were doing what they were supposed to do -- protecting the people (lgbt and their supporters) in belgrade. so they became the target of extreme right-wing violence, all pretty predicatable in such a society, in such circumstances.

AND what has changed to make things any different, any better, this time?

you can't have it both ways. you can't feed/facilitate your right wing base, and then expect such a march to go forward without incident, without massive violence.

if govt leaders were smart, they'd bring in police officials and lgbt leaders from the democratic countries, and learn how a successful, even fun lgbt event can be facilitated. As in London, paris, berlin, san francisco, new york, or 100 other cities worldwide, at least.

but even deeper, there has to be a clear and loud call by the govt, that supports diversity and tolerance. otherwise, nothing will ever change or progress.

roberto frisco

I fully understand that if it's raining than it's Serbia's fault.
I fully understand that if it's not raining - than it's Serbia's fault.

I just don't understand that where is Serbia's fault if frogs say in the area "quack-quack" like European frogs do - and not "ribbit-ribbit" like they do it in America.

Wait, I see... There aren't bullfrogs in Serbia because they were ethically cleansed out by Milosevic, Mladic, Karadzic, Tadic, Jeremic, Sindjelic, Hrebeljanovic and of course Putin.