The Power Of Love: Gay Pride in Split, Croatia a success

(S)

The LGBT community doesn't have it easy anywhere you go in the world, let's face it. There's always a homophobic or transphobic idiot wherever you go. They say you're never more than 6 feet away from a rat, well it looks like the sewers were empty in Split last year. This year things were much, much better.

After coming across a rather worried, Croatian LGBT person on reddit late last week, I decided to take this opportunity - seeing as there have been a lot of pride events in the last few days - to draw your attention to the town of Split and the violent, tense, and anger-building events that occurred there last year on pride day.

I also have some coverage on the pride parade there this year (which took place at the weekend). It seems that the police stepped up their game even more.

First, let's start with the back-story as it's quite important if you know little about the history of LGBT rights in Croatia. On paper, it looks relatively good. Homosexuality was legalized in the country in 1977, with the age of consent equalized in 1998. To put that into perspective, it was completely legalized in the whole of Britain in 1982 (five years after Croatia) and age of consent was equalized in 2001 (three years after Croatia). Same-sex activity has only been legal nationwide in the US since 2003. So Croatia is a fairly LGBT-friendly place right? Well don't book your tickets just yet.

Last year, the Split pride parade started in a tense atmosphere that was on the brink of a riot. The participants stepped off the bus into the area with a threat of ambush hanging in the air. According to a Croatian live online journal giving updates throughout the day, a bus arrived in Split, on the morning of June 11th 2011, an hour late. On board were 50 pride participants accompanied by police security. The police then checked the town to make sure it was safe to proceed. It is worth noting that this pride event took place just 24 hours after Croatia was given the all-clear to be scheduled to join the European Union in 2013. The atmosphere stayed relatively the same all morning. Things didn't really escalate. It wasn't until the parade starting moving in the early afternoon that insults turned to tear gas being thrown at participants by protesters. It soon got worse and eventually the riot police had to escort the participants to a safe house before being escorted home. But this is one account from one place in the city. Other accounts are more disturbing that this one.

Here is a video that I think perfectly captures the tensity of the atmosphere on the day.

This year, a participant posted the picture on the right on reddit last week. These are molotov cocktails, and if you don't know what they are, they're not meant for drinking. Simply put, these are petrol bombs. The redditor found the picture on a homophobic Croatian Facebook page which has since been reported and removed from the site (according to our sources the page was removed on Friday June 8th at around 4am GMT). To give you an idea of the tone of the page, I managed to track down some translations of status updates. One said, "Kill kill the faggot that does not exist, God's purpose and intended MEN AND WOMEN not MEN AND MEN, WOMEN AND WOMEN!". Other updates included intricately constructed phrases such as; "Fags in the blender!" or "God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve, why play it by faggots, bravo for the split, greetings from Serbia". The person who posted the image has been identified as Goran Leš by some people on reddit. Many questioned why the page had only been reported to Facebook and not the Croatian police.

The Croatian redditor (enivej) also added the following:

Okay, so: last year the city's first pride march took place and was met with extreme violence from thousands of hateful right-wing morons who threw stones, Molotov cocktails, firecrackers, tomatos, chanted 'Kill the fags' and greeted with Nazi/Ustashe salutes.

The police made a half-assed job to protect the participants. They failed to keep the protesters at a safe distance. They claimed not to have had any intel on an anti-gay gathering which is utter bullshit because the weeks leading to the pride saw the whole goddamn city covered in hateful graffiti. Threats were made and reported. Groups were created on Facebook inciting violence against pride participants etc.

Oh, and the violence happened only a day after Croatia received a final approval for its entry into the EU in 2013. Brilliant.

The use of petrol bombs at pride parades is nothing new. It has happened in other eastern-European countries in the past such as Bulgaria and Serbia. But why did the Croatians concentrate so much of their resources on a pride event with 150 participants? It seems a little much, don't you think? A full team of police in riot gear and a police helicopter dispatched for the day? It must have cost them a fortune. Well it's simple. If there were any serious injuries or deaths of LGBT pride participants, Croatia's acceptance into the EU would run the risks of being reconsidered; something they can't afford to think about.

Flanked by riot police for their protection, LGBT people participate in the Pride Parade in Split, Croatia 2011.
Some of the signs read "Closets on the street" and "My conscience is clear" (S)

One of the criterion that a country has to meet to be able to join the EU is that they have to have at least decriminalized homosexuality. They also have to be able to insure the safety of their citizens. If a gay pride turned into massacre or a riot, leaders of, or political figures in other European countries such as France's newly-elected socialist President, François Hollande, would probably have something to say. Especially seeing as Croatia will be joining the EU next year.

However, this year it seems to have gone a lot better than in 2011. Guarded by 900 riot police, riot water cannons, police boats and a police helicopter, the participants marched through Split, accompanied this time by a large number of journalists and the Ambassador of Norway. There were more police and journalists than there were pride participants, but they didn't let that taint their pride. It seems the threats put online over the days leading up to the pride, and the reputation it made for itself last year, didn't put off the participants as numbers were significantly up on last year's figures.

The 500 participants held banners reading messages such as "Hatred is not a family value" and "Every town has its dykes". Other influential, prominent citizens accompanied the parade such as Predrag Matvejević the famous Croatian and Bosnian writer, Zoja Odak a well-known Croatian actress, prize-winning director Rajko Grlić, and Viktor Ivančić founding member and long-time editor-in-chief of a satirical weekly newspaper in Croatia. A message from the President was posted on the government's YouTube channel asking the people of Split to show that they are a city that respects human rights.

Here is a video of this year's pride. Quite a contrast to 2011, don't you think?


All in all, the work seems to have paid off. The police made over 60 arrests during the day, but there were no reports of floods of insults, petrol bombs or violence. It seems the pride was a success. Once more, love wins over hate!