Serbia gay pride march attacked with bombs, stones

[Lars77]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Petrol bombs and stones were thrown at police protecting a gay pride march Sunday in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, an Interior Ministry representative told CNN.

About 40 police officers were injured, and about 60 people were arrested, the ministry's Suzana Vasiljevic told CNN. None of the marchers were injured.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic had urged people to allow the march to go ahead without incident, Serbia's Tanjug news agency reported Saturday.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/10/serbia.gay.violence/

[xchrom]

1. It's 2010 and the courage to come out is still extraordinary. Nt

[HillWilliam]

2. K&R

It seems no matter where we are, we're in danger just for existing.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. sounds like a march in the U.S. if it took place near a Tea Bagger gathering

frankly, the Tea Baggers do their most vicious work in secret, not out in the open like this

[Codeine]

4. I can't see even teabaggers throwing Molotov cocktails at a Pride March. nt

[Occulus]

6. Some of them would do it in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it.

You know that just as well as any of us.

[Codeine]

7. But that's the difference, isn't it? Even in our new teabagger era

we're not that debased enough as a culture that we would tolerate that for a second. Even the baggers understand that.

[NickB79]

5. Not surprised at all in that region of the world

I work with a few Bosnian guys, and while they're some of the nicest coworkers I've ever had, they're also the most homophobic bar none.

[Eryemil]

9. A nice homohphobe? That's like cultural stockholm syndrome---

[NickB79]

14. I know, it completely took me by surprise

I worked with these guys for months before the topic of homosexuality came up, and then I wished it hadn't. They spoke (approvingly) about how gay men were killed in the past in their country, and how "there are no gays in Bosnia because we killed them all or they ran to Serbia". It was like a punch in the gut, because I considered them such good friends.

I want to be furious with them, but they're completely oblivious to the fact that what they say is even offensive! To them it's simply how it's always been done.

[Smashcut]

15. Would you also say they were "nice" if they were racists?

[Odin2005]

20. So if people are not perfect they are evil?

One can be a nice person in general and still have nasty beliefs.

[Smashcut]

21. I'm pointing out a double-standard which needs to end.

Homophobia is too often seen as an "acceptable" form of prejudice, whereas racism never is. That is, one can still look at someone with "nasty beliefs" about gays and associate with that person and even call them "nice" whereas someone who had made racist remarks would never receive the benefit of the doubt to such an extent.

Your post exemplifies that whether you realize it or not. One would infer that you believe virulent homophobes not to be evil, but simply "not perfect." As though it's something you can roll your eyes at and just give them a pass. I doubt you would say the same about someone who repeatedly expressed hatred toward an ethnic minority.

[Odin2005]

22. I was actually talking about all kinds of prejudice, not just homophobia.

how do you know that 100 years from now people will not say the same thing about people that think, say, hateful things towards sapient AIs? I run into a like of nice people that think sapient AI is impossible or that "machines" can't be people.

[Smashcut]

23. Ha! OK.

Equal rights for sapient AIs! B-)

[MellowDem]

8. This is all Amerikkka's fault!

Serbia was a great place until America exported hamburgers and homophobia there!

:sarcasm:

[cowcommander]

10. Well...at least they're not killing their neighbors anymore

[gerenimox]

11. there isn`t any muslims left in their country

so it`s normal that the killings have stopped.

[alp227]

12. Scores arrested in Belgrade after anti-gay riot

Source: BBC News

Anti-gay protesters have fought running battles with police in an effort to disrupt a Gay Pride march in Belgrade - the first in the city since 2001.

Rioters threw petrol bombs and stones at armed police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The office of the ruling Democratic Party was briefly set on fire, and at least one shot was fired.

Calm was eventually restored but more than 100 people, mostly police, were injured, with another 100 arrested.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11507253

---

Now if only Fred Phelps and his ilk could dare fight the police and go to jail we'd all be happier and less annoyed.

But seriously, what is up with all this anti-gay attitude in the world? First the gay teens committing suicide and the gang members torturing a gay man in America and now this?

[mommalegga]

13. "Gay" is the new "Jew" in Europe

Some things never really change.

More proof to me that the Europe aint so enlightened as Progressives here seem to think.

Europe gave us Naplolean,Julius Ceaser,Stalin,Hitler, Mussolini. No wonder so many immigrated here.

[Lars77]

18. "Europe" is not a country.

To say that "Europe" is not progressive because of Serbian nationalists/nazi hoodlums is like saying the Tea Party is proof Americans and DU'ers included arent progressive. It's bad enough that many Americans tend to think the EU is a country, it's even worse bringing Serbia into it.

The country that gave us Hitler, Germany, usually has more than one million people in their summer parade.



In my home town the mayor spearheads the parade every year.

[SOS]

19. Nonsense

Serbia is not "Europe".

Germany - Land of Parties

Germany's annual Christopher Street Day parades are part of the international gay and lesbian celebration commemorating the gay movement. Most of the world calls this celebration "Gay Pride", whilst German speakers talk about "CSD". Since the early 1980s, CSD events have developed into mega-happenings in Germany, attracting more than two million participants and every major German city holds its own Christopher Street Day in the summer.



And very few western Europeans have been coming here for many years now.

[Delphinus]

16. When I heard that

on the news yesterday, I had to admit I was shocked. I had forgotten how "religious" that country was.

[pampango]

17. Anti-gay violence a show of far-right strength by "nationalist and anti-EU elements."

EU diplomats attend Belgrade march amid violent clashes

http://euobserver.com/9/31010

Several EU diplomats came out in support of Belgrade Pride on Sunday (10 October) as nationalist gangs battled police and vandalised property a few blocks away in the Serb capital. The head of the EU delegation to Serbia (French diplomat Vincent Degert), the Dutch ambassador to Serbia, the German deputy ambassador and diplomats from the Austrian, Spanish, Swedish and UK missions all turned out to join the crowd of between 1,000 and 1,500 Pride marchers.

One of the event organisers, Lazar Pavlovic, told this website by phone on Monday that the upheaval is a show of strength by nationalist and anti-EU elements in Serbian politics as well as a sign of the high level of violence in Serbian society in general. "This was a representation of their strength. If the state wants to go forward toward the EU, it will have to struggle against this kind of nationalism," he said. "For the past 10 years the state has not taken seriously the problem of violence at all levels of Serbian society. It is not just about the gay parade - these people look for any reason to go out on the streets and to fight with the police, to smash up shops."

"The participation of people from abroad, from EU institutions and embassies, was very important to us. The fight for LGBT rights is the same as the fight for EU values," he added.

Linda Freimane, the co-chair of the Brussels-based campaign group, ILGA-Europe, who also attended the event on Sunday, noted in an op-ed for EUobserver that violence was also the norm at gay rallies in Western Europe not so long ago. "Nowhere did Pride parades start out as the festive events we are now used to in cities such as London, Paris, Berlin or Brussels. Initially, it has always been the courageous few who decided to become visible and to demand equal rights and justice," she said.