The local organizer of an LGBT-pride march banned this week by Serbian authorities after pressure from religious and right-wing groups says EuroPride supporters will take to Belgrade's streets on September 17 despite the ban.
Marko Mihailovic also told an Instagram livestream with RFE/RL's Balkan Service on September 15 that his group has filed an appeal with a Serbian administrative court against the Interior Ministry's decision to block the event.
"The question is whether it will be a short walk or whether we will stand in one place, but we will go out into the streets," Mihailovic said. "It is important that we go out and that our voice is heard."
EuroPride celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex pride at the pan-European level and has been hosted by a different European city nearly every year since 1992.
Belgrade reportedly gave its initial nod for the event three years ago despite opposition from Serbian Orthodox leaders and right-wing groups against LGBT community events.
Those same groups recently staged three rounds of anti-Pride demonstrations in Belgrade, attracting thousands of people demanding the EuroPride rally be prohibited.
National populist President Aleksandar Vucic suggested last month that the EuroPride march would not be allowed to go ahead but said the final decision lay in the hands of the Interior Ministry.
On September 13, the Interior Ministry officially announced the ban on the EuroPride's culminating march through downtown Belgrade and said it had similarly denied permission for a counterdemonstration the same day.
It concluded that there was a "danger of violence, destruction of property, and other forms of disruption of public order on a larger scale."
Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin cited the "current geopolitical situation and tensions in the region" and suggested violence "would make the position of our country more difficult."
Serbia's Orthodox Christians March Against EuroPride Event
Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, the region's first openly lesbian leader, was booed by some attendees of a human rights conference organized within the EuroPride 2022 program on September 13, but she was quoted as saying: "No one can stop you [from walking], because that is a fundamental human right."
She acknowledged that authorities had given in to right-wing bullies in banning the march.
"Our lives and rights are important," EuroPride organizer Mihailovic said on the RFE/RL livestream.
He said discussions were continuing on whether police would provide security for any eventual September 17 rally.
"We have pretty strong guarantees that everything will be safe," Mihailovic said. "The state will not allow -- at least it shouldn't -- violence."
More details about EuroPride's plans would be announced later on September 15 or September 16, he added.
A 2010 Pride rally in Belgrade descended into violence that injured dozens of police and civilians when anti-LGBT mobs including some clerics swarmed and attacked participants, but subsequent Pride events took place without major incidents.
Mihailovic said this year is the first time that he has been afraid of attending, and he advised attendees to avoid displaying rainbows and other LGBT symbols on the way to or from the event.
"I'm sorry that it all came down to this," he said. "We were ready to make an amazing Pride and a concert within it, but unfortunately we've been set back 13 years."
Mihailovic and other organizers launched EuroPride week in a defiant but discreet ceremony that passed without incident in front of a government building on September 12.
