Association: Rhetoric Against LGBT+ Community Noticeably Worsening

LGBT flags

Nikola Planojevic, the program coordinator of the Let It Be Known! association said on July 28 that public rhetoric when discussing the LGBT+ community contained more and more hate speech, which, he said, was not just harming certain individuals or communities but society as a whole.

Planojevic told BETA that the freedom of speech and thought were guaranteed for everyone, that everyone had the right to voice their stances in public, but that this could be problematic when it was used to spread hatred and intolerance and that it was especially a problem when it was used by actors in public or political life.

Some of these excesses have the character of misdemeanors and crimes, while on the other hand, Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic’s statements, Planojevic said, “show a certain degree of intolerance, which doesn’t cross the line of discrimination.” “However, in his case we see that he departs from the framework of his political office and uses political platforms to propagate personal views, which is also harmful for society as a whole. The repercussions of these excesses are huge, and suffered, by rule, by marginalized and threatened parts of the population,” he stressed.

The Let It Be Known! association deals with cases of violence and discrimination against  LGBT+ persons in Serbia, as well as offering legal and psychological support, while Planojevic said that in 2021 the association had registered 83 incidents of illegal behavior motivated by hatred for the LGBT+ community.

He explained that type and intensity of incidents varied each year but that they mostly consisted of psychological harassment,  physical attacks and discrimination.