Gay Holocaust exhibit opens in Belgrade

By Paul Canning

An exhibition documenting the Nazi treatment of gay people has opened in Belgrade.

According to ARTEQ, an association that helped organise the show in the Belgrade City Museum, the exhibition will seek to confront stereotypes and tackle prejudices around sexual minorities in Serbia.

Serbia has some of the lowest numbers for tolerance of gay people in the Balkans, according to surveys. In September, authorities banned the Belgrade gay pride parade, citing violent threats from right-wing and Orthodox activists.

After coming to power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis victimized tens of thousands of people because of their sexual orientation.

Homosexuals were sent to concentration camps, where they suffered a similar fate to millions of Jews and hundreds of thousands of Romany who were marked for death. While the Jews were forced to wear a yellow badge in the shape of the star of David, homosexuals were required to wear a pink triangle.

Homosexuals in Germany continued to suffer persecution after the end of World War II, as Nazi-era laws against them were kept in place for years.

The extent of Nazi crimes against homosexuals was only revealed in the late 1970s.

The exhibition, “Nazi terror over homosexuals 1933 – 1945”, runs at the Belgrade City Museum from December 2nd to 23rd.

The show has been jointly organised by ARTEQ with Queer Zagreb from Croatia. It is part-funded by the City of Belgrade and the Serbian Ministry of culture and information.

ARTEQ say:

“The objectives of this significant cultural and socially responsible project are to disclose the historical facts by using authentic documents from Nazi Germany era to raise awareness about suffering of the homosexuals under Nazi regime, to provide framework for combating stereotypes about LGBT persons in Serbian society, to promote tolerance towards minorities and to stimulate different social factors to take part in the process of fostering anti-fascist activism and building a non-discriminatory society.”

As well as the exhibits, visitors will have the chance to watch documentaries, a movie about the gay British computer scientist Alan Turing, and a TV show on Belgrade pride by Serbian broadcaster B92.
In March, Macedonia opened the first Holocaust museum in the region.

Related articles

• In Serbia, politicians accused of inciting violence against LGBT (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Serbia's election campaign "played role in canceling of gay parade" (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Tension over Europe's gay rights role

Image via Wikipedia  

Source: euobserver.com

By Andrew Willis

Gay rights organisations openly acknowledge the crucial role played by European institutions in securing recent advances in the area, but concerns over top-down decision making and rising bureaucracy tell a more nuanced backstory.

Delegates at the 14th ILGA-Europe annual conference in The Hague on Thursday (28 October) also expressed fears over growing social conservatism in a post-recession Europe, and pointed to the recent Roma debacle as highlighting divergences between EU legislation and implementation on the ground.

ILGA co-chairs Linda Freimane and Martin Christensen were speaking at the body's 14th annual meeting in The Hague.

"This year's pride marches have been success stories ... despite confrontations," said Linda Freimane, co-chair of the international umbrella group which represents over 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex organisations.

A Council of Europe recommendation agreed in March was also widely heralded as an important new tool for activists fighting discrimination linked to sexual orientation or gender identity.

The European Court of Human Rights referred to the non-binding text in a landmark decision this October when it ruled against Moscow's decision to ban gay pride marches in recent years.

Read more »

Macedonia: failing on LGBT rights

Image via Wikipedia

Source: balkaninsight.com

Macedonia has failed to adopt an anti-discrimination law that is completely harmonised with European norms and standards, with explicit protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation a crucial missing element, local human rights experts commented after the country’s parliament adopted its first law on the subject.

Instead of promoting equality and justice, the law promotes homophobia and discrimination, Zarko Trajanovski, a human rights expert, told local media.

“Generally speaking, the law does not meet the EU recommendations where the premise of different sexual orientation is mentioned as one of the six key bases for discrimination,” he told A1 TV.

Macedonia’s controversial anti-discrimination law passed last week with the backing of the main ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party. The opposition left the session in protest after the majority remained deaf to the recommendations to include provisions barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Margarita Caca Nikolovska, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights and founder of the Macedonian NGO Institute for Democracy, argued that the country might find itself under scrutiny from the EU for ignoring its recommendations.

"A serious state must have this in mind and have a legal explanation for everything it does. Are our arguments going to be that people with different sexual orientation are sick, like some from the ruling party try to portray!?"

Slavco Dimitrov from the NGO Macedonia without Discrimination told local media that this will most certainly be a “black stain” in the next European Commission report for Macedonia, which is due to be published in autumn. He said that the law will have to be changed “sooner or later”.

One day before the passing of the law the EU ambassador to the country, Erwan Fouere, urged legislators once again to gather strength and openly add this type of discrimination in the law. Many local NGOs and human rights movements share the same thoughts.

"I appeal once again to the government and the parliament to use the chance on Thursday and vote for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, harmonized with European norms and criteria," Fouere said.

Trajanovski argued that the ruling conservative VMRO DPMNE party used the adoption of the law for its own political interests.

“The fact that we witnessed a constant anti homosexual campaign prior to the passing of the law shows that in practice the party in power abused the law to boost its own popularity among its voters,” he said.

Several VMRO DPMNE deputies were active in the past months in explaining to the public that they would not let a provision on sexual orientation be included in the law.

“This provision would mean the first phase towards introducing homosexual marriages and letting homosexual couples adopt children,” VMRO DPMNE party legislator Vlatko Gjorcev said in late February during one of the open debates on the topic held in the parliament.

The government has boasted that the law is one of the most comprehensive in Europe, and that failure to mention sexual orientation does not mean that homosexuals and other marginalized sexual groups will be left without protection as they are listed in the section “others”.

Human Rights Watch sent an open letter to the Macedonian prime minister in February this year to push for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the anti-discrimination law.

"Silence equals inequality," said Boris O. Dittrich, advocacy director in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender program of Human Rights Watch. "Vague references to ‘other grounds' simply aren't good enough."