Love, people!
UN staff joined Pride march to show solidarity and respect, but also to call for more action against discrimination, hate speech, violence against LGBT persons.
The ninth LGBT Pride was held in Podgorica under the slogan "Love, People".,
Several hundred participants carrying Rainbow flags, banners with demands of the LGBT population, followed by sounds of trumpets and songs, walked through the city center near the key state institutions, and returning to the starting point in front of the Parliament of Montenegro.
Pride gathered number of supporters, civil activists, representatives of numerous international organisations, representatives of number of state institutions including ministers of the Government, Ombudsman, Mayor of Podgorica, representatives of political parties, etc.
UN staff also joined Pride march to support the rights of LGBT population.
We join the LGBT Pride march today to show our solidarity and respect, but also to call for more action against discrimination, hate speech, violence, and for more support to LGBTI persons.
Anjet Lanting, Human Rights Advisor in the UN Resident Coordinator Office
Office of the UN Resident Coordinator
The first LGBT Pride in Montenegro was held in July 2013 in Budva, and the second one in Podgorica in October of the same year. Both, despite the heavy presence of the police, were marked by riots and violence with recorded injuries, and significant material damage was caused.
In 2010, Montenegro saw the first publicly declared homosexual, and a year later, the first NGO for the rights of sexual minorities, the LGBT Forum Progress, was founded.
In July 2020, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted the Law on Life Partnership, which entered into force on July 15, 2021. The first partnership between two young women from the Balkans, living abroad, was concluded in Budva on July 25, 2021.
One of the organizers of the ninth LGBT Pride, Danijel Kalezić from the NGO Queer Montenegro, reminded of the demands of the LGBT community.
The Law on Life Partnership of Persons of the Same Sex has started to be implemented, but 26 laws and bylaws remain unchanged. We call on the Government and the Parliament to continue and complete this process so that we can practice our human rights like other people. We also demand adoption of the Law on Gender Identity on the basis of self-determination, improvement of judicial practice in relation to hate speech against LGBT people, and solving the problem of lack of hormonal therapy for transgender people.
Danijel Kalezić, NGO Queer Montenegro
A large number of police officers secured the rally, blocking all paths into the center of the city where the Pride Parade was held. The gathering though passed in a cheerful atmosphere and without a single incident.
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