To be Gay in Serbia: Kind of like to be Albanian (or Roma, or Hungarian, or....) in Serbia

Hi folks! Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything-not since the end of April, to be exact, so I guess that makes 4 and a half months now. Unfortunately, I can't say this post will mark the beginning of regular postings again, either. I am right now probably busier than I've been any time in the last year and a half, and probably will continue to be "that busy" for at least the next 2 months, if not longer. However, while the blog may still be on "indefinite hiatus", rest assured that I have no intention of giving it up! My goal is that, once my current responsibilities I'm taking care of have finished, I will be able to bring the blog back, bigger and better than ever. But that's a ways off, and for right now, "good intentions" are about all I can promise. With a little luck and a little time, hopefully they will become realities.

Anyway....as most of you know, the Serbian National(Social)ists and their buddies out there just loooove to demonise Albanians (and usually Croats and Bosniaks, too), often painting Serbs-by inference and/or direct claim-to be everything their "enemies" aren't: Kindly, civilised, Godly, tolerant to a fault, unprejudiced, non-violent (except when absolutely necessary-wink wink!), etc., etc. A real "Royal Race of Saints", as it were. Of course, like all "Haters", they whitewash or ignore completely that their own lot are often at least as bad if not even worse than those they hate on (and that's not even taking into account the fact that often a lot of their calumnies against those they hate are often exaggerations/disproportionate representations of bad things people do not only in their culture, but in most other cultures to begin with).

A good case in point, as often happens, can be found in the "blog" of our ol' "buddy" Julia Whor...., er Gorin. Back in 2007, she made a couple of posts "exposing" what a rampant bunch of homophobes Kosovar Albanians supposedly are (the old "One Bad Apple IS The Whole Bunch" ploy, a favorite of "Haters" everywhere). Now, I won't deny that Albanian society, like A LOT of societies the world around, still has a long way to go with the "modern" issue of how it deals with the gay members of it's society. But as for the idea that Serbs-even the relatively "cosmopolitan" denizens of Belgrade-are conversely somehow or another wonderfully enlightened and non-homophobic (and even La Julia herself has been known to post an essay or two showing herself to not exactly be the most "gay-friendly" of folks out there)? Wellll....I'll let this article speak for itself:

Serbian gay parade is called off

Belgrade is full of posters telling participants: "We're expecting you"

A Gay Pride march in Serbia has been called off after police told organisers they could not guarantee its safety.

One of the organisers said Serbia's prime minister had urged them to switch Sunday's rally from central Belgrade, but the proposal was "unacceptable".

President Boris Tadic vowed on Friday to protect the participants.

Anti-gay groups had threatened violence if the march were allowed to go ahead. "We're expecting you" posters had been stuck around the Serbian capital.

"Pride parades are traditionally organised in the main streets of big cities," said one of the organisers, Dragana Vuckovic.

It is "unacceptable" to stage the parade in a "field", she told the media.

The Republic of Serbia has capitulated. We have not Gay Pride organising committee Gay march plan tests Serb feelings

The decision had been taken after a meeting on Saturday with Prime Minister Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic.

Nationalist and religious leaders have opposed a Serbian bill banning discrimination against homosexuals.

The ultra-nationalist Serb Popular Movement 1389 hailed the cancellation of Sunday's march as "a great victory for normal Serbia".

"In our city infidels and Satanists will not pass," it added.

Homosexuality in Serbia is still far from accepted, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade.

The gay scene is underground and members of the community are regularly the target of discrimination.

Belgrade's first gay parade in 2001 descended into chaos amid widespread violence by mobs of protesters - with television images of bleeding participants and police firing rubber bullets broadcast around the world.

The organising committee of the planned Sunday march will certainly keep up the pressure, says our correspondent.

"The state has failed the fundamental test," it says in a statement. "The next exam period is approaching fast. The Republic of Serbia has capitulated. We have not."