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EuroPride begins in Serbia amid far-right protests

Country’s president on Tuesday announced march is banned

Published

3 years ago

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U.S. Amb. to Serbia Christopher Hill with EuroPride and Belgrade Pride officials marking start of EuroPride 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, on Sept. 12, 2022. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Serbia/EuroPride)

Officials from EuroPride and Belgrade Pride commemorated the start of EuroPride 2022 in the Serbian capital with a ceremonial flag raising Monday as the event gets underway this week.

Concerns however, have been raised over safety for attendees and participants in the wake of massive anti-LGBTQ demonstrations and the government of Serbia issuing a ban.

During a routine Saturday press conference two weeks ago, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that the international EuroPride event scheduled to be held from Sept. 12-18 was cancelled.

In his remarks the Serbian leader told reporters that his government had come under intense pressure from far right-wing groups and the leadership of the Serbian Orthodox Church to cancel the event. Vucic acknowledged that LGBTQ rights and people in the Balkan nation were under siege and threatened. However he deflected on the issue, “It is not a question of whether [those pressures] are stronger,” he said. “It’s just that at some point you can’t achieve everything, and that’s it.”

Undaunted, EuroPride and Belgrade Pride defiantly announced that the event would go on as scheduled.

“President Vucic cannot cancel someone else’s event. EuroPride is not cancelled, and will not be cancelled,” European Pride Organizers Association President Kristine Garina said.

“During the bidding process for EuroPride 2022, (the) prime minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic promised the full support of the Serbian government for EuroPride in Belgrade, and we expect that promise to be honored,” she added.

The kick-off was also attended by U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Christopher R. Hill who tweeted:

“Gratified to see a safe, secure start to #EuroPride2022. Congratulations @BelgradePride, @CDREurope, and the entire team of organizers behind @EuroPride. Looking forward to a week of great events with safety, security, and basic freedoms guaranteed for all.”

On Sunday, several thousands of protesters took to the streets of Belgrade, many carrying huge Serbian and Russian flags, chanting pro-Russia, pro-Vladimir Putin and anti-LGBTQ slogans and marching to Belgrade’s St. Sava cathedral for prayers.

Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije led clerics and faithful in a prayer “for the sanctity of marriage and family” that accused “invisible forces” of imposing “ungodly and unnatural unions as a substitute for marriage and family.”

Radio Free Europe/Liberty reported that Brnabic, who is openly lesbian and was a participant in a 2017 Pride event in Belgrade, declined to intervene to support holding the EuroPride events in light of the ban decreed by Vucic.

She responded angrily on Monday to a local newspaper editor who accused Brnabic of selling out the LGBTQ community to become a “Progressive,” a reference to Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party, which she joined after becoming prime minister as an independent five years ago.

Brnabic accused the editor and other “enlightened elites” of cubbyholing gay people as incapable of holding diverse political views.

“[To them] if you’re gay, you can only be gay, period. It’s the only thing that defines you,” Brnabic tweeted. “You are not the prime minister — but LGBT.”

The translation of the tweet below reads: “The essence of discrimination that the “enlightened elite” neither sees nor cares about. If you’re gay, you can just be gay, period. It’s the only thing that defines you. You are not the prime minister — but LGBT. You are not a member of SNS — but LGBT. And they don’t see a single problem with it, they think it’s something smart.”

There has been violence at previous Pride events being held in the Serbian capital city, most notably on Oct. 10, 2010, when anti-LGBTQ and ultra nationalist anti-government protesters fought with about 5,000 armed Serbian police resulting in 78 police officers and 17 civilians that were injured some seriously and more than 100 arrests and detentions.

The violence also severely damaged the car-park building of the ruling pro-European Democratic Party in an act of arson, the state television building and the headquarters of other political parties were also damaged.

The rioting came as Serbia was seeking admittance as a European Union member state.

A spokesperson for the ILGA-Europe said that since 2014 Pride events were held in Belgrade under mostly peaceful conditions, but there is extreme pushback from the ultra-nationalist groups and especially those groups aligned with the Orthodox Church.

On Tuesday, the European Union’s Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, issued a statement regarding Serbia’s stance on EuroPride and the ban by Vucic:

“It is highly regrettable that the Serbian authorities have decided to ban the EuroPride march scheduled for Sept. 17. Weeks of uncertainty concerning the holding of this march have sent a wrong message to the public and made space for hateful rhetoric and more threats against LGBTI people, including from religious leaders,” said Mijatović.

“Instead of bowing to threats and hate by banning the EuroPride march, the Serbian authorities have the responsibility to ensure that everyone in society can exercise their right to enjoy the same freedoms and is equal in dignity.” Mijatović noted continuing:

“As I have stressed in my conversations with the Serbian authorities at the highest level over the past two weeks, the fact that EuroPride takes place in Serbia this week is also of great significance for the south-eastern European region, where much still needs to be done to combat discrimination and hate against LGBTI people. Hosting EuroPride sends the signal that the march toward equality is in progress. It is positive that Pride marches have taken place peacefully in recent years in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Tirana, Podgorica and Skopje and I call on the Serbian authorities to be on the right side of history by enabling a peaceful and safe EuroPride march next Saturday.”

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United Kingdom

Four UK Pride organizations ban political parties from events

Statement notes Supreme Court ruling that excludes trans women from legal definition of woman

Published

2 weeks ago

on

May 29, 2025

By

(Photo by Rob Wilson via Bigstock)

The organizers of four of the largest Prides in the U.K. have banned political parties from their events.

A statement that Pride in London, Manchester Pride, Birmingham Pride, and Brighton Pride issued on Thursday specifically notes last month’s U.K. Supreme Court ruling that said the legal definition of a woman is limited to “biological women” and does not include transgender women.

“The recent ruling by the U.K. Supreme Court to exclude trans women from the definition of the term ‘woman’ underscores the urgent need for immediate action,” reads the statement. “In this moment, we choose to stand firmer, louder, and prouder in demanding change that protects and uplifts trans lives.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the ruling said “a woman is a biological woman” under the country’s 2010 Equality Act that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Pride organizations in their statement did not specifically reference Starmer and his comments. They did, however, announce they are “collectively suspending political party participation in our Pride events.”

“Know that this is not a symbolic gesture,” reads the statement. “It is a direct call for accountability and a refusal to platform those who have not protected our rights.”

The groups also made the following demands:

• Full and enforceable protections under the Equality Act

• Timely and dignified access to NHS (National Health Service) gender-affirming healthcare

• A reformed, accessible Gender Recognition Certificate process

• Sustainable funding for trans-led services and support organizations across the U.K.

“This is the minimum,” said the groups. “Anything less is not allyship, it is abandonment.”

“Our main parties have let us down and need to re-earn their place in our marches,” said Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is the director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, in a newsletter that his organization publishes. “Pride is a protest.”

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European Union

EU countries ‘alarmed’ over Hungary’s worsening anti-LGBTQ crackdown

Budapest authorities have banned June 1 march

Published

2 weeks ago

on

May 27, 2025

By

The Hungarian parliament in Budapest, Hungary, on April 4, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

The governments of 20 European Union countries on Tuesday said they are “alarmed” over Hungary’s worsening anti-LGBTQ crackdown.

Hungarian lawmakers in March passed a bill that bans Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs last month amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee on Tuesday said police in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, have banned an LGBTQ rights march that was scheduled to have taken place on June 1. The Budapest-based human rights NGO in a press release said authorities cited the law that bans Pride events and other demonstrations “displaying homosexuality.”

Budapest Pride is scheduled to take place on June 28. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee and other groups, including the Háttér Society, a Hungarian LGBTQ rights organization, said they will challenge the ban.

“We are deeply concerned by recent legislative and constitutional amendments infringing on the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ persons which were adopted by the Hungarian parliament on March 18 and April 14, 2025, following other anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation already introduced in previous years,” reads a declaration that the Austrian, Belgian, Cypriot, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maltese, Dutch, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish governments issued.

“Under the pretext of child protection, these legislative amendments allow fines to be imposed on participants and organizers of events, such as the annual Pride celebrations,” it adds. “The amendments also allow for facial recognition software to be used at such events, and for banning such events. We are concerned by the implications of these measures on freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy.”

The governments stress they are “highly alarmed by these developments which run contrary to the fundamental values of human dignity, freedom, equality and respect for human rights, as laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.”

“Respecting and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is inherent in being part of the European family. This is our responsibility and shared commitment of the member states and the European institutions,” says the declaration.

“We therefore call upon Hungary to revise these measures, to ensure the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its citizens are respected and protected, thus complying with its international obligations,” it adds.

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The Vatican

Pope Leo XIV: Family based on ‘stable union between a man and a woman’

American-born pontiff met with Vatican diplomats on May 15

Published

4 weeks ago

on

May 18, 2025

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Pope Leo XIV (Photo via Vatican News/X)

Pope Leo XIV on May 15 reaffirmed Vatican doctrine that says marriage is between a man and a woman.

The Associated Press reported Leo told Vatican diplomats the family is created upon the “stable union between a man and a woman.” Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and dozens of other world leaders on Sunday attended the American-born pontiff’s installation Mass that took place in St. Peter’s Square.

The College of Cardinals earlier this month elected Leo to succeed Pope Francis, who died on April 21.

Francis, who was from Argentina, was a vocal opponent of the country’s marriage equality law that took effect in 2010. He was the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, when then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed it.

Francis in 2020 publicly backed civil unions for gays and lesbians. Francis in 2023 said priests can bless same-sex couples.

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