Mirjana Bogdanović, GSA Executive Director, for Serbian gay magazine “Optimist”

Belgrade, 23.10.2012.

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA; Alliance) informs the public that the verdict of the First Basic Court in Belgrade, which determined discriminatory behavior and severe form of discrimination of LGBT population by Nebojsa Bakarec, official of the conservative Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and councilor in the Belgrade City Assembly, became final (res judicata), after sentenced Bakarec did not appeal against the first instance verdict in the legal time limit. The verdict which has now become final was based on articles 11, 12, 13 and 21 of the Serbian Anti-Discrimination Law. With this verdict Nebojsa Bakarec is prohibited from repeating the discriminatory behavior and was ordered to pay legal fees to the plaintiff (GSA).

Belgrade, 15.10.2012

Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) and Gay Straight Alliance (GSA; Alliance) commend the decision of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration to include article 54a regarding hate crime in the draft of the Law on Ammendments and Addendums of the Criminal Code (CC), available for public comment. Article 54a, which includes hate crime as an aggravating circumstance, reads as follows:
“If a criminal act is committed due to hatred based on other person’s race, religion, national or ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, such act will be deemed by the court as an aggravating circumstance, unless it is not stipulated by this code as a feature of a criminal act.“

Belgrade, 04.10.2012.

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) severely condemns the ban of 2012 Pride Parade and feels that this act is a direct consequence of blatant irresponsibility of all sociopolitical factors that are responsible for solving the problem of homophobia, threats and violence against the LGBT population, as well as for preparing this year’s Parade.

Belgrade, 01.10.2012.

Gay straight alliance (GSA; Alliance) informs the public that the website of this organization was hacked today, and that a threat “We are waiting for you!” was posted instead of its usual content.

Belgrade, 30.09.2012.

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA; Alliance) repudiates the statement given by Boban Stojanović, a member of the Organizing Committee of the Pride Parade, to a Croatian T-portal, in which he de facto says that the stance of GSA on this year’s parade is a result of „closeness“ to the Socialist Party of Serbia, as a falsehood in its entirety.

Belgrade, 19.09.2012.

Court of Apeals revoked the verdict against Dragan Markovic Palma for severe discrimination against LGBT population and sent it back for a new trial

Belgrade, 17.09.2012

Regarding today’s press release of the Pride Parade organisers, which asks the Ministry of Interior to intensify their investigation and bring to justice those who attacked two young men in the night between 7 and 8 September in Belgrade (when V.M. (25) was brutally beaten), Gay Straight Alliance would also like to inform the public on the facts of this case, as well as the attitude of the Parade Organising Committee towards it.

Belgrade, 14.09.2012

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA; Alliance) is informed about the text that is circulating on the Internet under the title “Calls for the implementation of a new strategy for combating social homophobia” posted on the Queeria Center’s website. Having had access to this text, GSA wants to inform the public that the claims made in that article are completely false and malicious, and that it is nothing more than an insinuation of something that is not even close to the positions and the ways in which GSA operates.

Belgrade, 12.09.2012

According to the information which Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) received today, police officers of the criminal police department in the Serbian city of Smederevo arrested five people from Smederevo and placed them in custody for the duration of 48 hours, after which they will appear before the investigative judge of the Basic Court in Smederevo. They are under suspicion for beating up two young men from Belgrade and city of Kraljevo after a short argument, in the night between 3 and 4 September 2012 in Smederevo. One of the victims received serious, while the other lighter physical injuries, and the cause of the attack was the attackers’ belief that the two young men were members of the gay population.

Belgrade, 12.09.2012

Gay straight alliance (GSA; Alliance) received yesterday a call from a person A.M. who lives in the vicinity of the park in Fruskogorska Street in Belgrade, where the attack on the young gay man V.M. (25) took place in the night between September 7 and 8, who was beaten around 1:30 am by a group of unknown attackers causing him severe bodily injuries.