MONTENEGRO: Small LGBT Pride Event Takes Place Under Massive Police Presence
Last year hundreds of violent anti-gay extremists attacked a tiny gay pride parade in Montenegro. This year's even smaller event went off yesterday without incident and under heavy police protection as the small nation campaigns to join the European Union. Via Yahoo News:
Barely 100 people joined a gay pride parade Sunday in the capital of deeply conservative Montenegro, vastly outnumbered by some 2,000 police amid fears of violence. Waving banners reading "Traditionally Proud," "Silence = Death" and "This is Just the Beginning," they marched past the main government buildings of central Podgorica. Human Rights Minister Suad Numanovic and Podgorica Mayor Slavoljub Stijepanovic joined the parade along with ambassadors of several member states of the European Union, which Montenegro is in talks to join. Mitja Drobnic, the head of the EU delegation in Montenegro, also took part, telling reporters: "Human rights make part of the rule of law. Without results achieved in the area of the rule of law there is no progress towards EU membership."
Labels: European Union, gay Pride, Montenegro