Serbian Ministry Funding

The Ministry of Culture in Serbia has decided to give 2,500 GBP to a Serbian GLBT news website.

Queer Serbia is updated often and offers news, culture and art-related  articles. The website strives to increase GLBT visibility and decrease homophobia and has been lobbying for funds since 2003, when they were told they would receive them, but were later ignored.

An adviser to the then Minister for Culture, Bora Đorđević, told the press: "he has no intention to give money to faggots."

Accession

"This is a big step for the gay-lesbian population in Serbia, which received for the first time a support from the State, which is financed back also by them through taxes and contributions, and which did not do a lot till now regarding the respect of gay-lesbian rights," said Predrag M. Azdejkovic, Editor in Chief of the Queeria Web Portal.

Serbia, along with the Western-Balkans, are potential candidate for EU accession, and thus need to do a lot of work fighting homophobia if then want to get in.

The country has had gay marches since 2001, but every time something is organized there is a clear and present risk of it being attacked violently by neo-fascists.

Two-thirds of Serbs consider homosexuality an illness and half want their government to work to prevent it.

An estimated 70% of gay people have been physically assaulted or know another gay person who has.




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