Four days before the streets of Belgrade were to host EuroPride 2022, LGBTQ+ activists were handed a letter from Serbia’s interior ministry informing them that the proposed route for the Pride march had been rejected and telling them to submit a revised route. The catch? The request needed to have been handed to the police the previous day to be considered. So it amounted to an effective ban.
Serbian LGBTQ+ activists have told me that despite this they will march along the original route as planned. In more ways than one, it feels like history is repeating itself.
In 2019, Belgrade was elected by the European Pride Organisers Association members to host EuroPride, a pan-European Pride event which is held annually in a different European city. This was a major first for EuroPride: the first time the event would be held outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and a major recognition of how Belgrade Pride has overcome a history of violence and bans to become a regular and safe event each year since 2014.
