B92 - News - Comments - "LDP alone in defense of gay rights"

Boris Milivojević (FoNet)

A gay association says that the Liberal-Democrats (LDP) came up with the best answers in a poll it organized.

The Belgrade-based Gay-Straight Association (GSA) has put together a questionnaire for the nine presidential candidates wishing to find out about their position when it came to homosexual rights in Serbia.

Only four submitted their answers: Milanka Karić, Ištvan Pastor, Jugoslav Dobričanin and Čedomir Jovanović, none of them the front runners in the January 20 race.

The questions pertained to anti-discriminatory laws, social distance toward gay persons, violence, and what is seen as the most controversial, same-sex partnerships.

According to the GSA chairman Boris Milićević, who spoke to reporters in Belgrade today, only Jovanović insists on removing all discriminatory provision from existing laws, as well as on instituting "hate crime" into the criminal legislature.

As for social distance, all four presidential hopefuls said they have homosexual acquaintances, without encountering any problems in cooperation or communication.

Karić, Pastor and Dobričanin told the GSA that they never came across cases where the gay population suffered violence, while Jovanović believes such violence is "very widespread."

The leader of the LDP blames this on the heritage of past policies, and on "a lack of reaction by the state and judiciary when such violence occurs."

He also said that Serbia had a constitution that "holds no place for people and their real lives."

Jovanović sees the cure for this in a thorough reform of education, that will teach young people to be tolerant toward sexual minorities.