23 Aug Serbian Bishop cursed the LBGT population

A Serbian Orthodox bishop has been criticised for saying the forthcoming Europe Pride event in Belgrade will “desecrate” Belgrade, and saying he wished he could take up a weapon to stop it.

The Program Director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, YIHR, Sofija Todorovic, said Bishop Nikanor of Banat’s talk about cursing the organizers and participants in Euro Pride and using weapons against them was a “direct threat” to a whole group of people. “Once again, we are witnessing that the bishops and heads of the church are dealing with things that are not within their authority, but in a way that actually directly threaten a certain group, in which there is probably a larger number, among others, of believers,” Todorovic told BIRN.

The Director of Civil Right Defenders Europe, Goran Miletic, told Kurir newspaper that the statement “represents open hate speech towards the LGBT community, but also towards Croats and the [gay] Prime Minister of Serbia”.

In a video published on YouTube on Thursday, Bishop Nikanor is seen standing in front of a church and addressing a couple of believers. He said that Euro Pride participants “will come to Belgrade and flaunt and desecrate the city of Belgrade, the holy Serbian city,” and that “we raise our voice against such [people]”. “I will curse all those who organize and participate in something like that,” Nikanor added. “I can do that much. If I had a weapon, I would use it, I would use that force if only I had it, but I do not,“ he added.

Bishop Nikanor also offended Serbia’s own Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, who is openly gay and whose family members were born in Croatia.

Euro Pride is a pan-European international LGBT event hosted by a different European city each year. This time it will be held in Belgrade from September 12 to 18.

References from the official website of BIRN