.
The vow came at an April 24 meeting between the Gay-Straight Alliance, Interior Ministry officials, contest officials, Belgrade police and the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation.
”The issue, and fears upon this matter, are mostly a product of lots of threats of cleric-fascistic organizations in Serbia — such as Obraz, whose president … uses every single public appearance to announce open hunt on LGBT population of fans who are about to attend the ESC 2008,” the Gay-Straight Alliance said in an English-language press release.
Kurt Krickler of the European Pride Organisers Association, which has taken interest in the matter, said ”it’s difficult to judge” if the meeting means Belgrade will be safe for GLBT contest attendees.
”I believe the Serbian authorities have realized that the safety of LGBT song contest fans is an important issue, and at least the authorities seem to understand that it would badly damage Serbia’s image abroad if incidents of homophobic violence occurred,” Krickler said in an interview.
”I am convinced the police will do everything to prevent homophobic incidents but of course there cannot be a policeman behind every foreign visitor. … I would still recommend gay visitors to keep a low profile and, for example, not wave rainbow flags in the streets.”
The campy song contest, now in its 53rd year, is hugely popular among European gays. Forty-three nations have entered this year’s competition, which culminates May 24.
The European Broadcasting Union will stream the contest over the Web at broadcast quality. See
Uppdaterad 2016-11-16
