Gay Straight Alliance’s meeting with Serbian Renewal Movement

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) held today in Belgrade the last of a series of meetings with representatives of parliamentary political parties in Serbia. The meeting was with Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) which was represented by Aleksandar Čotrić, president of the Executive board of SPO and an MP.

The topics of the meeting were various, first of all the need for implementing the Anti-discrimination Law, then the strategies and priorities in solving the status of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people in Serbia such as violence and discrimination, as well as the need for a greater efficiency of the prosecution and the judiciary in processing and solving these cases.

SPO emphasised that they see themselves as a european party of the right centre and therefore do not have a negative attitude towards any minority in Serbia, because they feel that democracy shows itself primarily in the attitude towards minority groups.

SPO most severely condemns violence and discrimination of GLBT people and they will always express this opinion, whether the issue is hate speech, violence or calls for violence.

Additionaly, SPO supports the Pride Parade, bearing in mind that such manifestations are being held all over the world, as well as that in this manner the GLBT movement in Serbia could send a clear political message to the public and the institutions on the need to respect the human rights of this population.

The delegation of GSA took this opportunity to thank SPO and the president of the party Vuk Drašković for their support to Gay Straight Alliance regarding the last year’s ban on GSA’s pres conference in Sava Centre.

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With this meeting GSA closed the first round of talk with parliamentary political parties. A general conclusion of GSA is that the parties have for the first time shown a readiness for dialogue and cooperation with the GLBT community and that all parties which met with GSA to discuss violence and discrimination over GLBT people and the possibility to hold a successful Pride Parade in Serbia, have taken a step forward when compared to the positions they held formerly.

However, it is extremely worrisome that the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), New Serbia (NS) and United Serbia (JS) completely ignored persistent efforts by GSA, which for weeks tried to contact these parties and set up meetings with their representatives. By such attitude these parties have shown their clear position that they do not wish to establish a dialogue with the GLBT community about the violence and discrimination which this community is subjected to in Serbia.

GSA believes, and this was also confirmed in the period around the preparations for the Pride Parade last year, as well as in the last few months when violence escalated again in Serbia (in the family, on the streets, and on stadiums), that violence is a general social problem, and not just the problem of GLBT people in Serbia, which means that, in fighting violence, exceptions must not exist. The question which has been raised is the following: are DSS, NS and JS, by avoiding to speak about this issue, trying to send a message to the public that violence against a part of the Serbian population is allowed?

Gay Straight Alliance will in the following period organise meetings with government institutions which could contribute most to the improvement of the position of GLBT people in Serbia, to the fight against violence and discrimination, and to making it possible to hold the first successful Pride Parade in Serbia. Among others, the meetings will be held with the departments of justice, human and minority rights, internal affairs, sports and youth, health, education, then with the Mayor of Belgrade, Parliamentary Board for Security, the Office of the Serbian Government for European Integrations, and others.

GSA Info Center

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