Belgrade’s Pride Week Opened next to the Victor Monument

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Belgrade’s Pride Week was opened on Sept. 4 at the foot of The Victor, a symbol of Belgrade in the historic Kalemegdan fortress, and will end on Sept. 10.

Under this year’s motto “Not Even Close”, the Pride Week will offer a series of cultural, artistic and educational events to promote the LGBTI+ community in Serbia, and the traditional Pride March will take place on Sept. 9.

The director of the Belgrade Pride, Goran Miletic, said to reporters during the opening ceremony that the present moment was not at all optimistic in the eyes of the LGBTI+ community, and that the situation was far worse than previously, adding that the authorities were not interested in meeting a single demand by the Belgrade Pride.

The Belgrade Pride’s demands have been the same since 2017 – that a Law on the Same-Sex Union, the Law on Gender Identity and Rights of Intersex Persons be passed, and that the authorities in Serbia should be quick to condemn hate speech and crimes motivated by animosity towards the LGBTI+ community.

Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Brankica Jovanovic said that political will was necessary for the adoption of the Law on the Same-Sex Union as much as for the adoption of any other law, and that some things could not be changed “overnight,” as it might provoke resistance.

“You cannot pass legislation overnight if there is no political will to support it, enough of it at least. Clearly the law has already created enough differences and dilemmas,” Jankovic said to reporters in the Kalemegdan Park after the opening of the Pride Week, asked about the future of the law, which Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said it would not be passed as long as he was head of state.