Saturday, May 17, 2008

Where Men Ride

As fans begin to pour into Belgrade for the semi finals which start in 72 hours, some security concerns remain - especially with regard to gay and lesbian fans. In early April the Serb newspaper Alo! included an interview with Mladen Obradovic, president of fascist party Obraz in which he described Eurovision as ‘gay youth day’ and made specific threats against gays and lesbians planning to visit Serbia for ESC.

European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA) has written to the EBU about Serbia's poor record on human rights of lesbian, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people. For its part the EBU has received a guarantee of the safety of delegations, press and fans from the President of Serbia.

Recent parliamentary elections also favoured pro-western parties, which hopefully indicates groups like Obraz are increasingly marginalised.

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