Organizers: Pride Parade was success

The first gay Pride Parade in Serbia was a success to the delight of the entire LGBT population, assessed representatives of the parade’s organizing committee. The parade was a political protest which pointed to all problems that bother us, said one of the organizers Lazar Pavlovic. Organizers: Pride Parade was success The Pride Parade was not Sodom and Gomorrah and it was not a place with obscene scenes where you could see naked people or a place where moral and traditional family values were destroyed, he added. Pavlovic emphasized that the state had clearly decided to defended human rights and European values last Sunday. According to him, fortunately for the participants of the parade the only dam between the LGBT population and very well-organized violent groups was well-organized police who decisively a professionally did their job. If the dam had collapsed we would not be here today, Pavlovic concluded and thanked the Serbian police. He stressed that it was now the state’s obligation to investigate who had organized and ordered the violence and added that not all of the perpetrators were only young men but that these had been well-organized groups that were being easily manipulated and financially supported. Pavlovic has assessed that certain officials’ statements that holding of the parade should have been reassessed bearing in mind possible incidents are a “dangerous shift of responsibility to the parade’s organizers”. Representative of the parade’s organizing committee Boban Stojanovic has stated that the Pride Parade was not premature and that he does not feel responsible for the riots in Belgrade. Responsibility for every violation of human rights lies with the state. What was up to us we did 100 percent, not a single permit was missing, there were no indications that the gathering would insult or provoke anyone or that the parade would cause any incidents, Stojanovic explained. The parade itself does not change anything during the two-hour walk, but if somebody smashes a mammography unit because of the gay parade it becomes clear what kind of society we live in, he stressed and described all those who did not want the parade to take place as "losers". Many thanks to every police officer who was on the streets of Belgrade on October 10 to defend human rights and constitutional order of Serbia because the Pride Parade would not have been held without them and it would not have been the safest place in the entire city at that moment, said member of the organizing committee Adorjan Kurucz. The Pride Parade organizers (Tanjug)

Organizers: Pride Parade was success

The Pride Parade was not Sodom and Gomorrah and it was not a place with obscene scenes where you could see naked people or a place where moral and traditional family values were destroyed, he added.

Pavlović emphasized that the state had clearly decided to defended human rights and European values last Sunday.

According to him, fortunately for the participants of the parade the only dam between the LGBT population and very well-organized violent groups was well-organized police who decisively a professionally did their job.

If the dam had collapsed we would not be here today, Pavlović concluded and thanked the Serbian police.

He stressed that it was now the state’s obligation to investigate who had organized and ordered the violence and added that not all of the perpetrators were only young men but that these had been well-organized groups that were being easily manipulated and financially supported.

Pavlović has assessed that certain officials’ statements that holding of the parade should have been reassessed bearing in mind possible incidents are a “dangerous shift of responsibility to the parade’s organizers”.

Representative of the parade’s organizing committee Boban Stojanović has stated that the Pride Parade was not premature and that he does not feel responsible for the riots in Belgrade.

Responsibility for every violation of human rights lies with the state. What was up to us we did 100 percent, not a single permit was missing, there were no indications that the gathering would insult or provoke anyone or that the parade would cause any incidents, Stojanović explained.

The parade itself does not change anything during the two-hour walk, but if somebody smashes a mammography unit because of the gay parade it becomes clear what kind of society we live in, he stressed and described all those who did not want the parade to take place as "losers".

Many thanks to every police officer who was on the streets of Belgrade on October 10 to defend human rights and constitutional order of Serbia because the Pride Parade would not have been held without them and it would not have been the safest place in the entire city at that moment, said member of the organizing committee Adorjan Kurucz.