Death Threats in Croatia for Gay Pride

I have always wanted to see Croatia.

 Croatia has a double ‘personality’ with its thousand Adriatic islands adjacent to picturesque mountains
and lakes. But it’s also a survivor of the bloody Balkan wars where massacres and ethnic cleansing ravaged
the land in the 1990’s. Narrow-minded socialist thinking still expresses some sharp intolerance toward gays  and lesbians. But time, peace and prosperity have helped in the healing of war scars while new national  legislation has given first-time recognition of LGBT partnerships. (from 2006).


THIS WEEK, Several government ministers in Croatia announced they  will join a gay pride march
set for this weekend amid threats of violence from opponents, saying it
was a test of democracy for a country due to join the European Union
next year. 

Last year’s event, held in the Adriatic city of Split,
plunged into violence as police failed to protect the marchers from
angry locals who pelted them with eggs and rocks. Several people were
injured and at least 30 arrested. 

Several nationalist and war veteran groups have issued warnings
against this year’s June 9 march in Split, calling it a “shameful
provocation by sick people to which we will respond.”

I can tell you, we were in Budapest last year, 2011,  for Gay Pride, and nearly 1500  police tried to protect the 1500  marchers. And it was kind of scary. This year Police said they would NOT do it again and tried to cancel Pride – but Parliament overruled, and said they MUST protect the marchers again this year!

But back to Croatia.

Croatian Gay Pride revelers are being threatened with violence by members of a rightwing Facebook group, according to reports.

B92 notes that over 400 Facebook users joined the now-defunct group,
which has been dubbed, “Blood will flow in the streets of Split, there
will be no gay parade.”
–  the group even threatened.


The group says its goal
is to point out to the public that it was unacceptable to hold the
“immoral manifestation” which should be held on June 9 in Split.
According to the group, the manifestation is “poisoning children”.

“What
are they proud of, their disease?”, “Every normal person is sick of
parades of mentally ill people (gays). They don’t care about the fact
that someone’s child has to watch the sick people”, “Gay bashing June 9,
2012”, “Don’t parade, go get some treatment!” are just some of the
comments posted on the group.

An investigation of the group and its origins is reportedly underway.
“We will try to determine who the author of the group was and we will
act in accordance with the law,” Split-Dalmatia Police Spokeswoman
Marina Kraljević-Gudelj told the site. “After that we will inform the
state prosecution.”

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