Pride Parade announced in Zagreb, Belgrade still waiting

While authorities in Serbia have for the past ten years failed to enable for an LGBT pride parade to be held in Belgrade, Zagreb will have one on June 19. This will be the ninth Pride Parade in the Croatian capital city. Pride Parade announced in Zagreb, Belgrade still waiting Marko Juricic, one of the organizers, stated that he did not expect any negative reactions considering that the parade has been continuously held for almost a decade now. He pointed out that Croatian LGBT activists were constantly receiving support from political parties, both declarative and concrete. “A day ahead of the Pride we will organize a big round table entitled, ‘From institutional homophobia to joint combat for LGBT rights’. However, cooperation with representatives of authoritieshas been painstakingly built over these nine years and the real test will certainly be the round table too,” he explained. Ahead of the constitutional changes, which come as part of preparations for Croatia’s accession into the EU, the Social-Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) has proposed an article on protection of sexual orientation, which caused great controversy in Croatia's society. “What’s going on now in the public debate, which unfortunately took a step in the direction it wasn’t supposed to, is whether the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in its article 14 would include sexual orientation as well. What we can conclude from the whole story is that we’re still far from calm conversation, it’s still a struggle, as long as there is a possibility of attack and physical conflict, we have a more clear picture about the realistic state in which the gay community in Croatia finds itself,” Jurcic told B92. This year’s Pride Parade in Zagreb, to be held under the slogan “Croatia can swallow this”, will be held on June 19 in Zagreb, it has been announced this week. The announcement reads that the focus of this year’s parade is freedom of sexual expression and differences of sexual practices. “This year we’re planning on imposing a topic which we have been postponing for some time, and that’s our sexuality itself. The Pride’s program will be held from the beginning of June and it will culminate on June 19 when the parade will walk Zagreb’s downtown,” he stated. Numerous LGBT activists from Serbia will travel to Zagreb both in order to show support to the community in Croatia and to exchange experiences regarding the organization of the Pride Parade. The promo for this year's Zagreb Pride Parade

Pride Parade announced in Zagreb, Belgrade still waiting

Marko Juričić, one of the organizers, stated that he did not expect any negative reactions considering that the parade has been continuously held for almost a decade now.

He pointed out that Croatian LGBT activists were constantly receiving support from political parties, both declarative and concrete.

“A day ahead of the Pride we will organize a big round table entitled, ‘From institutional homophobia to joint combat for LGBT rights’. However, cooperation with representatives of authoritieshas been painstakingly built over these nine years and the real test will certainly be the round table too,” he explained.

Ahead of the constitutional changes, which come as part of preparations for Croatia’s accession into the EU, the Social-Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) has proposed an article on protection of sexual orientation, which caused great controversy in Croatia's society.

“What’s going on now in the public debate, which unfortunately took a step in the direction it wasn’t supposed to, is whether the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in its article 14 would include sexual orientation as well. What we can conclude from the whole story is that we’re still far from calm conversation, it’s still a struggle, as long as there is a possibility of attack and physical conflict, we have a more clear picture about the realistic state in which the gay community in Croatia finds itself,” Jurčić told B92.

This year’s Pride Parade in Zagreb, to be held under the slogan “Croatia can swallow this”, will be held on June 19 in Zagreb, it has been announced this week.

The announcement reads that the focus of this year’s parade is freedom of sexual expression and differences of sexual practices.

“This year we’re planning on imposing a topic which we have been postponing for some time, and that’s our sexuality itself. The Pride’s program will be held from the beginning of June and it will culminate on June 19 when the parade will walk Zagreb’s downtown,” he stated.

Numerous LGBT activists from Serbia will travel to Zagreb both in order to show support to the community in Croatia and to exchange experiences regarding the organization of the Pride Parade.