Belgrade Readies for Week of LGBT Pride

This year's Belgrade Pride, which runs from September 11 to September 17, offers a varied program, including exhibitions, film screenings and literary evenings at various locations throughout the city.

As in preceding years, violence against LGBT people, adoption of a law on registered partnerships as well as open and objective reporting of LGBT issues are some of the central themes for this year's Pride Week.

The central event, however, will be the Pride Parade, which is scheduled for the end of the Pride Week, on September 17.

The parade will start at 12am at Cvetni Square [Cvetni Trg] and end at Republic Square [Trg Republika].

Nine organisations are reported to be participating in this year's march.

In relation to the Pride Week, the first Pride Info Centre opened in Belgrade on August 29, and will be open every day until September 25.

The Program Director of Civil Rights Defenders for the Western Balkans, Goran Miletic, called the opening of the info centre a historic step for Serbia.

"We expect that from hiding away and going out on the streets twice a year, we will turn into something that is permanent and which is not in hiding. We believe that Belgrade and Serbia are ready for that," Miletic told Tanjug news agency.

Pride Parade Belgrade [Parada Ponosa Beograda' is the main organiser of the Pride Week, as it has been since the organisation was established in 2010.

The first attempt to arrange a Belgrade Pride Parade in 2001, however, was disrupted by large numbers of far-right nationalists who attacked and beat up the participants.

In 2010, the parade went ahead, but several thousand young people caused mayhem on the streets, throwing stones and missiles, injuring police and setting buildings and...