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Belgrade, 13 May 2018

Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) is hereby informing the public that the jury who deciding on the 2017/18 “Rainbow” Award, formed a shortlist of 5 nominees for the award. The winner of this year’s “Rainbow” Award will be pronounced on May 16th, at the ceremony organized for that exact occasion in Belgrade City Hall.

The jury had decided to form a shortlist for the sixth in a row “Rainbow” Award that includes:

• Cultural Center (KC) Grad
  KC Grad is probably the most open space in Belgrade for organizing a wide spectrum of events concerning the LGBT community. For years, in this recognizable space, there have been many community discussions, parties, meetings with the community, drag queen events, events related to the Pride Week and many others, and it remained the same in the previous year. This space is recognized as extremely friendly in the LGBT community and is often the first choice of LGBT organizations for their activities.
• actor and show host Stefan Buzurović
  He was nominated for the award because of his positive media statements in which he supported same-sex unions and the possibility for adoption of children by same-sex partners. Through his statements, he also showed a great understanding of the situation in which LGBT persons in Serbia are in and which is precisely due to the absence of a law that would govern the same-sex unions. It is of a great importance that one successful and popular artist publicly sends messages of support, which certainly contributes to an increase in tolerance towards the LGBT population.
• fashion editor and journalist Irena Mišović
  Through affirmative opinions expressed via numerous media on the occasion of the same-sex marriage of her daughter, she undoubtedly contributed to the spreading of tolerance in society towards LGBT people. By doing so she has also sent an extremely powerful message to all parents whose children have different sexual orientation about the need for a greater degree of acceptance and understanding of their loved ones, which, unfortunately, is often not the case in Serbia. She showed on her personal example how important it is to resist rooted social prejudices for the well-being of your own children, but also for the well-being of the society as a whole.
• drama writer Dušan Janković
  Janković is the author of the popular play “My grandfather is out”, which can be seen in BDP, and in an original and interesting way it deals with the topic of the position of LGBT people and the attitude of the close surrounding towards them. This piece “deconstructs family relationships and examines the limits of exclusivity and understanding” and by promoting the play, it brings this topic closer to the theatrical audience, as well as the general public, and makes a significant contribution to a better understanding of the status of the LGBT population.
• director Stevan Bodroža
  Although he had also previously dealt with plays directed at LGBT topics, this time he was nominated for the play “…And The Others”, which was created in the production of the Merlinka festival and UK “Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic”. The play deals with the relationship between various minorities and the majority, it consists of four stories and one of them is dedicated to LGBT people. The main message of the play is that every person at some point in their life is a minority. The performance was very noticeable and is predominantly directed towards younger generations.

Members of this year’s jury were: Bojana Simeunović from cabinet of Serbian prime minister, on behalf of Ana Brnabić, Serbian PM and last year’s winner of „Rainbow“ Award; Ljiljana Smajlović, journalist and former president of Journalists′ Association of Serbia (UNS); Sandra Pantelić, Head of the City Administration of Belgrade; Prof. dr Zorica Mršević, science advisor for Institut of Social Sciences in Belgrade; Jovana Šesterikov, journalist of Vice Serbia; Predrag Azdejković, president of Gay Lesbian Info Center (GLIC) i Lazar Pavlović, president of GSA, as a representative of an award founder.

“Rainbow” Award had been established by GSA and since 2013 it’s awarded every year regarding the May 17th – International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia – IDAHO for contribution to battling homophobia and transphobia, and protection and improvement for LGBT human rights in Serbia for the past year. Award’s goal is to instigate and affirm the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights of LGBT’s in Serbia from the state and local institutions and organs, as well as the society in a whole.

Previous winners of “Rainbow” Award were Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić, liaison officer to the LGBT community of the Ministry of Interior (MUP) of Serbia Aleksandar Stojmenović, minister for european integrations Jadranka Joksimović, Head of Negotiating Team for Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the EU Tanja Miščević as well as the Department for working with the community of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia.

The award is given via public contest and it’s decided by jury that is always consisted of successful individuals from various fields, previous “Rainbow” Award winners, representatives of the award founders, as well as activists of other organizations dealing in LGBT rights.

Info center GSA