Video: Gay Bosnian refugee tells his story

Source: Canadian Human Rights Museum



Dario Kosarac recounts his feelings of never totally belonging in Bosnia because his parents were of mixed Serbian-Croatian ethnic backgrounds; and never being totally accepted in the USA because he was from Bosnia and is gay. Born and raised in Bosnia, which at the time was Socialist Yugoslavia, and of parents that were different ethnic backgrounds - so Serbian-Croatian in Bosnia, which is predominantly Muslim.

Growing up, it really wasn't an issue. We were a fairly secular society; it wasn't a big deal. And then the war started and what ended up happening - it wasn't so much that we were a minority living in Sarajevo and being non-Muslim - it was more that we were not really belonging to any one group because we couldn't be identified as Serbs or Croats. And that, unfortunately, resulted in our family abandoning us - our relatives feeling like they couldn't associate with us because we weren't - we couldn't be - one or the other. And there was violence against my sister, against my family - and my mother got fired because she was not the predominant ethnic group in that area.

So then I left Bosnia to go to the US to high school and then, eventually, university. And I thought: here I'm escaping the sort of narrow-minded Balkan mindset and I'm going to go to the great America and become something bigger and greater.

As I kept living in the US, the typical sort of path to Citizenship, or being able to stay there permanently, would be - well, one of the typical paths, would be through marriage. And it so happens that I'm gay. So, again, this sort of inability to fit into the societal definition of what's accepted or normal, umm, didn't allow me to marry my partner at the time and actually stay in the country.

After ten years - again feeling like I don't belong in the society - I'm not a stakeholder, I'm just a visitor and an alien as they do call us down there. So, all this culminated in a decision, a very difficult one to actually say I'm going to move again and come to Toronto.

Once you see how it should be, once you sort of - the burden of that low level, constant low level of discrimination is taken away - you realize that's how life should be, that, you know, I shouldn't have to worry about the fact that I'm gay. And I shouldn't have to worry about the fact that my mother is Croatian and my father is Serbian. That I should have all the same opportunities - and that's what I found here.

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Analysis: Balkan far right using attacks on gay pride for political gain

Image via Wikipedia

Source: riskandforecast.com

By Political Capital

The study of so-called radical rightist ideologies and politicians is receiving increasing public attention throughout Europe. In this context it is important to identify the diversity and internal divisions of these political movements.

In many respects the differences and similarities can be accurately described based on geographic location. Taking this model as a working hypothesis, in the coming months Political Capital will present the striking differences of the Western and Eastern versions of far right ideologies, with special emphasis on the social context, as well as the issues and topics constituting the organizational building blocks of the far right.

In our first study we analyze the position of the far right in respect to the gay rights movement with a special focus on Balkan countries aspiring to enter the European Union.

Fault lines running east and west

The massacre committed by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway appears to represent a watershed in thinking about far-right ideologies. Since the attack there has been a growing consensus among the European public the in the past decade Western decision-makers have been excessively preoccupied with Islam radicalism while they overlooked threats posed by the proliferation of extremist right-wing ideologies. Presumably, this is related to the relative integration of the radical right in Northern and West Europe; parties promoting such ideas have accommodated to democratic political institutions. In contrast, some countries in Southern and most in Eastern Europe present an altogether different picture.

In essence, the ideologies of the far right in the West and the East are essentially the inverses of each other. The Western and Eastern versions are both characterized by neo-populism, i.e., giving simplistic and provocative answers to socially divisive issues. However, those in the East are often also ‘neo-Fascists’ in the sense that in their self-definition and symbols they find inspiration in the political legacy of totalitarian regimes active in their respective countries between the two world wars.

The far right in Western Europe is characterized by shrill Islamophobia while it is not anti-Semitic, in contrast to the East European version that is strongly anti-Jewish for the most part and often pro-Muslim (see Hungarian Jobbik). When it comes to the state and the economy, most far-right movements in the West are neo-liberals, while their East European counterparts are advocates of a strong state. They also show significant differences when it comes to their attitudes toward minorities.

Discriminating policies of Westerners can be described as the intolerance of the tolerant (Cas Mudde), i.e., they are hostile to immigrants rejecting liberal values and violating the rights of, for instance, women and gays. While Breivik himself, according to his book, is rather hostile to gays, the organizations he refers to are typically more ‘homophile’ than homophobe.

In contrast, East Europeans are fundamentally intolerant of minorities, where the rejection of sexual minorities in but one typical case in point. In South-Eastern Europe most centrist parties are also hostile or ambivalent when it comes to this issue. Obviously this is a reflection of the social environment; in these countries the public is profoundly hostile to gays, demonstrated by its rejection of considering their public presence and rights as a public issue and the frequent atrocities accompanying gay parades.

The recognition of gay rights: tensions between internal and external requirements

Read more »

Video: Holocaust Memorial Day 2011 film trailer

Watch the making of the HMD 2011 online film: 'Untold Stories' and discover the stories behind the trailer.

Ali is a Iraqi LGBT activist who has experienced discrimination and persecution. His name has been changed and his face obscured to protect his identity as he still faces persecution today in London.

Apolinaire Kageruka is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He has never recorded his testimony before.

Astrid Aghajanian survived the Ottoman Empire’s destruction of its Armenian population. For more information on the events of 1915-18, please visit the USHMM site.

Hawa is a survivor of the genocide in Darfur. She has covered her face for filming in order to protect her identity. Hawa is not her real name.

Margret is a German Jewish Refugee. She and her family fled Nazi persecution and settled in the UK.

Michel is a photographer living in the UK. In 2010, he was a victim of hate crime when his home was vandalised and a swastika was painted on his door.

Mukesh Kapila was working as Head of the UN in Sudan in 2004 and brought the genocide in Darfur to the attention of the international community.

Safet Vukalic survived the genocide in Bosnia. He now lives and works in the UK.

Simon Winston survived the Holocaust in hiding. He is filmed at The Holocaust Centre.

Sokphal Din survived the genocide in Cambodia (1975-1979).

Vicky Botton lives in the East Midlands and is a Traveller. She speaks about the Untold Stories of the persecution of Gypsy and Travellers in the UK today. Vicky refers to the ‘gadje’ in her film. This is a Romani term meaning ‘non-gypsy.’