05 Apr First Pride Parade in BiH

Bosnian human rights activists announced on Monday that Bosnia’s first-ever Pride Parade will take place in September in the capital, Sarajevo, and will gather members of the LGBTI community from all over the country.

“Bosnia is finally getting its Pride Parade, which will be held on September 8,” group of activists who stand behind the idea of the Pride walk told a press conference in Sarajevo.

Branko Culibrk, one of the organizers of the first-ever Pride march in Bosnia and Herzegovina said that The pride march will be held under the motto “Ima izac’” meaning “There’s someone to come out” – which is also a phrase once used on Bosnian buses, when passengers would tell the driver to stop so they could get off the bus.

“The Pride march will take place in the centre of the city, where all other protests are held. We submitted an application to the Interior Ministry and to the Transport Ministry in Sarajevo Canton on April 1, so there is a long way ahead to plan and define all the further activities,” Culibrk said.

Bosnia and Herzegovina lags behind the region in tolerance for gay rights. Being gay remained a crime until 1998 and no public Pride events have taken place before now due to security concerns.

Past attempts to organise public LGBT events ended in chaos – and violence.

When the community in Sarajevo tried to organise the first public, four-day cultural festival in September 2008, hoodlums wrecked it on the first day.

References from the Balkan Insight