Pride the caravan was organized by the association "Da se zna!", so it is LGBT + the community in Kraljevo gathered at the Serbian Warriors Square. Opposite them, young men also gathered who, as can be seen on the videos on social networks, shouted insulting and threatening slogans and threw stones. On that occasion, a journalist from the Likvidno.info portal and a journalist from Glasa Šumadije were hit with eggs, which is why the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) filed a criminal complaint with the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Interior in this city.
Director of the organization "To be known!" Bojan Lazić tells "Vreme" that oysters and eggs were mostly thrown by young people hooligans, but that they "acted according to the order of the elders".
"On the video published by Kompas, you can see seven or eight kids throwing eggs at us from a distance. If you listen to the video more carefully, you can hear an older man saying to them: 'Now!'. So, they were working on someone's orders," Lazić says.
Local journalist Miljko Stojanović told "Dojče vele" that the men gathered in Zaječar shouted "Kill the fag", and that they received applause from guests from a nearby cafe.
Bojan Lazić confirmed these allegations for "Vreme" and added that in Kraljevo as well, older women from bars in the center of the city shouted "Whoah, fags."
He says it is devastating that among those shouting "Kill, slaughter" were very young people:
"If 13, 14 or 15-year-olds can even say 'Kill and slaughter,' even unconsciously, it's just unbelievable that they have words like that in their vocabulary at that age. It's absolutely devastating."
He adds that he sees such behavior as a consequence of the very homophobic and conservative narratives currently prevailing in society, especially on social networks.
"Children today don't watch television, they use TikTok and Instagram. Some influencer appears there and says: 'Brother, it's sick to me, what two men, what two women' and the like. They watch it, absorb it and it's their main source of information and education," Lazić believes.
He points out that the question of responsibility does not end with the children who participated in the incidents and hopes that at least some parents talked to their child when they returned home from the square.
"There are so many criminal acts that there had to be an immediate reaction"
Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Milan Antonijevic in a guest appearance on N1 television, he said that "there could have been an arrest", but that the prosecutor's office should review all the circumstances and determine whether there are elements of a criminal offense. He added that there are definitely elements of hate speech and that we need to react to that.
Lazić, however, believes that the issue of responsibility is much more serious, because "if there is a video where someone throws stones at us, if there are videos where someone shouts 'Kill, slaughter, that fags don't exist', there are so many criminal acts that there had to be an immediate reaction."
An oyster fell right next to his leg, he told a policeman that they were throwing stones at them, but he "just kept silent and looked at him".
"There are 800 or 900 comments full of threats and hatred under our posts, and there are hundreds of them on the portals that publish the news about the caravan," says Lazić. Hate speech on the networks is so widespread and frequent that it is even impossible to monitor.
The student parliament of the Medical School reacted to the incident that happened in Zaječar, which condemned the appearance of the students of that school at the gathering against the Pride caravan. The students announced on Instagram that health workers must not be homophobic, that they are expected to be professional and to respect every person, regardless of their sexual orientation or any other personal characteristic.
The student parliament also requested that the competent authorities take appropriate measures, while they expect the school administration to form a working group from September 1 to deal with education and the prevention of homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
Bojan Lazić says that the reaction of the students of the Medical School is encouraging. "They stepped back and apologized for the inconvenience we experienced in their town. We thanked them, so there is some hope."
Violence against the LGBT+ community has been going on for decades
25 years have passed since the first Pride held in Serbia. After a quarter of a century, the slogan is the same - "There is room for all of us". However, when you look at the videos from Kraljevo and Zaječar, the question is how far we have come as a society 25 years later.
And it's not a problem of position, it's not a problem of the position of LGBT+ expressed only in smaller communities.
"I would never say that Belgrade is better. In the last few months, we have had the most serious cases of hate crimes against LGBT+ people in the capital," says Lazić.
He believes that the problem is also that the competent authorities do not act on reports, which happens the same in all cases - victims report the case to the police and nothing further happens.
"The worst thing of all is that we practically do the police work. We submit all the recordings and videos and nothing happens. This is where you can best see what the situation is," concludes Lazić.
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