Montenegro Gays Protest Over College Meeting Ban

LGBT and student organizations plan to stage a protest walk on Friday in the town of Niksic, protesting over a college ban on a gay rights meeting.

The organizers say the "walk of pride" will support the further development of freedom for the student LGBT community.

The walk will be organized in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in the town of Niksic, where the college administration refused to allow the organization of a public forum on LGBT rights.

One of the organizers, the watchdog LGBT Forum Progress, said the public forum had been scheduled for last before the administration banned it.

"The Dean succumbed to pressure from a group of homophobic student leaders," the organization said in a statement.

A "significant police force" will be deployed to secure the walk, the organizers said.

Montenegro's pro-EU government has given full backing to the country's small gay community and to its right to stage public parades.

However, a recent survey suggested that over 71 per cent of adults in the country still consider homosexuality an illness.

Half of all citizens see homosexuality as a danger to society and say the state should work to suppress it, the same survey said.