Montenegro Pride held despite strong opposition and protests
washingtonblade.comDespite strong opposition from the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro joined by pro-Serbian, self-styled traditional values and family officials, Montenegro Pride was held with more than 500 people in attendance marching Saturday.
Montenegro’s 10th annual Pride event in this extremely conservative Balkan country was dubbed “No more buts,” reflecting demands from LGBTQ activists that more be done to stem hate speech and harassment of the nation’s LGBTQ community despite huge steps that have been made in the past years Voice of America reported.
Support for the Montenegrin LGBTQ community was also expressed by the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica, the country’s capital, which tweeted “In honor of #MontenegroPride and the #LGBTQI community in Montenegro the U.S.
Embassy is illuminated with the rainbow colors! Happy Pride! #nemaviseali “We gathered here for the 10th time to show we are human, (that we are) live beings made of flesh and blood, wishes and dreams, but rejected and ignored, discriminated and trampled upon because of love,” LGBTQ+/human rights activist Stasa Bastrica told Voice of America.
