Date Set For Belgrade Pride Parade

Releasing colourful balloons at the Kalemegdan fortress in the Serbian capital on Tuesday, LGBT organisers said the parade would start at the Manjez park in the city, one of the main meeting spots for the country's LGBT population in the 70s.
 
The rally is scheduled to pass the main country's institutions and finish with a party at the Student Cultural Centre, SKC.
 
The aim of the gathering is to urge the government to strengthen the fight against violence and descrimination.
 
Lazar Pavlovic, from Gay Straight Alliance, one of the organisers of the parade, said some ministers and political parties had already promised to support the event.
 
"The right to freedom of movement is guaranteed by the constitution. We demand the state to allow us, as equal citizens, that right," Pavlovic said.
 
Pavlovic has previously told Balkan Insight that, regardless of the importance of holding such events in Serbia, the event should not be looked on as the final goal of the Serbian LGBT community, but only a step forward.
 
Serbia's first pride march was brought to a halt in Belgrade in June 2001 during clashes with protestors in which several people and policemen were injured.
 
Almost eight years later, the country's parliament adopted an Anti-Discrimination Law prohibiting, among other things, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status.
 
The second pride rally in Belgrade, which was scheduled to take place in September last year, was cancelled after police declared the risk to the marchers’ personal security was too great following threats from right-wing groups to disrupt it.
 
Following the cancellation of the event, Human Rights Watch called upon Serbian President Boris Tadic to take action to end a spate of violence and discrimination in the country based on sexual orientation and gender identity.