LGBT
Official launch of the portal Da Se Zna!
We are happy to announce the official launch of the portal Da Se Zna!.
The portal was created to enable victims and witnesses to report cases of violence and discrimination against LGBTI people to LGBTI organizations in a secure manner. The goal of the organizations that launched this portal is to informSerbian society and to raise awareness about this serious problem that in turn will contribute into decrease of violence and discrimination towards LGBTI people.
Serbia: LGBT Organisations Sign Platform On Cooperation
BELGRADE – LGBT organisations on Thursday signed a platform aimed at establishing unity in the fight for the rights of LGBT persons, as well as cooperation with other organisations focusing on protection of human rights.
The platform was signed by a total of seven LGBT organisations, five of which are from Belgrade, while the other two are from Novi Sad and Sabac, respectively, said Boban Stojanovic, a representative of Belgrade Pride Parade.
The signing of the platform is one of the most significant events in the history of the LGBT movement whereby the movement commemorates 25 years of its activism.
No complains at Irinej
Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Nevena Petrusic not received any complaint for homophobic and discriminatory statements of Serbian Orthodox Church prior to the year’s Pride Parade, which was signed by Patriarch Irenej , reported by Danas. As a reminder, the statement compares homosexuality with pedophilia, “massively popular in the western world” and incest.
“You have the right to parade, but only on its own cost and expense of their customers, no matter how they are called, both for the parade, and for security, but not at the expense of Serbia – bombed, destroyed, morally and economically crippled, impoverished, flood, nailed to the pillory, “it is said in a statement of SOC. Although many organizations, public figures, and some politicians condemned the statement of the SOC, the complaints were absent this time.
The gay pride successfully maintained in Belgrade
The first gay pride after four years, with large security and a few minor incidents, was maintained. With over a thousand participants, there were the mayor of Belgrade, politicians from the government and the opposition, diplomats and many public figures.
Ambassador Michael Kirby, and the head of the EU office in Serbia Michael Davenport also walked with the participants. There were also German Ambassador Wilhelm Heinz, British Ambassador Denis Keefe and the Australian ambassador Julia Finch. Ministers Ivan Tasovac, Jadranka Joksimovic and Kori Udovicki, then mayor of Belgrade Sinisa Mali, as well as Serbia’s chief negotiator with the EU, Tanja Miscevic, were there as state officials. As party officials, there were representatives of the opposition Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party. Among the assembled members of the Democratic Party, there were Goran Jesic, Borko Stefanovic, Balsa Bozovic i Gordana Comic, Cedomir Jovanovic with his wife, represented Liberal Democratic Party. There were dramaturg Biljana Srbljanovic, director Purisa Đorđevic and actress Mirjana Karanovic, and also, in the crowd was a film director, Srdjan Dragojevic, a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia.
Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU believes that gay men can donate blood
In an ECJ press release of the 17 July, the Advocate General Mengozzi stated that for him a sexual relationship between two men does not constitute conduct that justifies permanent exclusion from giving blood. He gave his opinion to a pending case in which a Frenchman challenged French legislation, which he claims to be conflicting with an EU directive. On 29 April 2009 Mr. Leger wished to make a blood donation at the Etablissement francais du sang (French Blood Agency), which a doctor denied him on the grounds that Mr. Leger was homosexual and that French law permanently excludes men who have had, or have, sexual relations with other men from giving blood. EU legislation regarding the technical requirements for blood states that persons whose sexual behavior puts them at high risk of contracting sever infectious diseases that can be transmitted by blood are permanently excluded from giving blood.
LGBT RIGHTS MAKE A BREAKTHROUGH IN CROATIA
Croatian government plans to legalize same-sex partnerships in the coming weeks, despite internal divisions. The bill allowing gay couples the right to civil partnerships –presented in February- will be submitted to parliament’s vote before the summer break, Croatian government plans.
In December 2013, 66 percent of Croats voted in favour of the introduction of marriage’s definition in the Constitution as “the union between a man and a woman”, banning the possibility of same-sex marriages.
LGBT RIGHTS: THE TREND IS CHANGED?
“A state may not deny the issuance of a marriage license to two persons, or refuse to recognize their marriage, based solely upon the sex of the persons in the marriage union”, 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver stated on June 25th, 2014.
This decision was given as appeal on the sentence of the District Court of Utah that has declared unconstitutional Amendment 3 of Utah State Constitution, that portraited marriages only as legal unions between man and woman, stating that “no other domestic union may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect”.
