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“I don't plan to leave — I plan to flee.” That short sentence from 21-year-old Nevena, a student from Republika Srpska who was attacked during the 8 March Women's Day march in Banja Luka for carrying a rainbow flag, may be the most expressive picture of life for LGBTQ+ people — and those who support them — in the entity.
What that situation actually looks like is perhaps made clearest by the recent announcement by Republika Srpska's president Milorad Dodik that the entity will soon pass a law banning members of the LGBT community from approaching educational institutions.
Dodik explained the announcement himself: “Kindergartens, schools, universities — they won't be able to operate, won't be able to come near, won't be able to spread propaganda.” He said it was “the institutional responsibility” of the RS authorities, who in this way want to preserve what he called the “traditional and family values” of people in this entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The EU's special representative in BiH, Johann Sattler, said that what is happening in RS has a truly chilling effect on civil society, minorities and the LGBT community. Speaking of the amendments to the criminal code by which the entity's authorities plan to criminalise defamation, along with the announced “foreign agents” law and the legal ban on LGBT people approaching schools, Sattler said they belong in the same category.
“They lead to a shrinking of the space for civil society and for everyone who thinks critically,” he added.
The trigger for Dodik's outburst, media in BiH reported, was the hooligan attack on LGBT activists and journalists in Banja Luka — the same event at which Nevena was attacked over the rainbow flag, the symbol of the LGBTQ+ population.
She remembers the shouting, the slurs, and the messages of violence aimed at the marchers.
“Those underage hooligans grabbed my arm to tear the flag away. It wasn't a direct attack on us but on the idea we want to send to Banja Luka. I've said openly that they went in assuming I was a member of the LGBT community, not just because I carried the flag,” Nevena tells Euronews Serbia, adding: “Everything being imposed here is one of the reasons I plan not to leave, but to flee.”
After that event, the premises of non-governmental organisations supporting LGBT rights were also attacked. Activists then tried to organise another protest on 18 March, but the Banja Luka police directorate banned it. The public gathering, organised by the Banja Luka independent artists' and activists' group Geto and BH Pride from Sarajevo, was banned with the explanation that “it was assessed there is a real possibility of greater endangerment of people and property”.
The gathering was conceived as support for activists — and for journalists, in the context of the announced criminalisation of defamation — and as a response to the seizure of the rainbow flag at the Women's Day march.
“We had an association in Banja Luka that worked on LGBT rights. The young man who came from Tuzla to start it is now a political asylum-seeker in the United States. During his activism he wore a security bracelet. His safety was looked after by international bodies — not by the institutions of RS,” says Milica Pralica, president of the association Oštra nula.
The non-governmental sector, too, warns that the safety of LGBT people in Republika Srpska is at risk. They see the blame in the institutions and in the rhetoric of local politicians — above all, they say, RS president Milorad Dodik.
Dodik has a history of statements disturbing to LGBTQ+ people. Among other things, he once told them to go to “the islands”.
“There are places and islands around the world where that is normality. Please, move there, live, do what you want. This is our way of life and I am trying to protect our way of life,” Dodik said.
He also said he believes it pollutes the public space and should be eliminated.
“They impose their values on us; we will not allow it. I remain against those people — that is, against what they propagate. I have nothing against the people themselves; they are free to do what they want in their private lives. Sue me, no problem,” Dodik said, among other things.
Dodik's announcement that within the next few months RS will pass a law banning LGBT people from approaching schools has stirred public debate in the entity.
“At face value, in that case, if the prime minister of Serbia came to RS and wanted to visit a school, she would not be able to enter it,” pointed out Igor Crnadak, head of the PDP caucus in the RS National Assembly.
Srđan Mazalica, an SNSD deputy, calls that “a false equivalence”.
“This refers only to activists who would promote the rights and values represented by organisations engaged in the protection and promotion of LGBT people,” Mazalica added.
The mood on Banja Luka's streets is not promising either. In a street poll by Euronews Serbia, residents answered whether LGBT people should be expelled from their community.
“It's a disease — let them go wherever they want, just not in Republika Srpska,” said one Banja Luka resident.
Another answered that he has “nothing against them, as long as it stays in a private place”. One woman, asked how it would affect her to learn that someone around her was LGBT, said it “wouldn't exactly be good”.
In Republika Srpska there is not a single organisation devoted exclusively to LGBT people — the last one closed in 2015. Nor is there currently a single political party in RS that supports LGBT people.
Asked when a Pride march might first be welcome in Banja Luka, Nevena — from the beginning of this story — answers: “I'll start crying.”
Source: Euronews Srbija. English adaptation: gay-serbia.com.