Bosnia's embattled LGBT community will defy threats of violence to hold the Balkan country's first ever pride parade this weekend.
Bosnia's embattled LGBT community will defy threats of violence to hold the Balkan country's first ever pride parade this weekend and appeal for tolerance and unity in a society torn by war-era divisions and gripped by poverty.
Even so, the backlash against the parade has been considerable in this deeply conservative nation, which has entrenched ethnic divisions and nationalist sentiments that fueled the 1992-95 conflict and are still holding Bosnia back. But fears of violence are high after LGBT festivals in Sarajevo were attacked by radical Islamists and hooligans in 2008 and 2014, injuring several people. Opponents are planning two gatherings this weekend, and Sarajevo police have brought in reinforcements.
Another activist, Nera Mesinovic, said she was forced to leave Bosnia in order to marry her lesbian partner. Even more devastating, she said, was that upon their return the couple could not show affection in public in Sarajevo. Scarred by the war that killed more than 100,000 people, Bosnia remains in the grip of mistrust and nationalism that sustain divisions between the former war foes — the Bosniaks, who are mainly Muslims, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. That has slowed the adoption of more liberal approaches in a country where widespread poverty is driving educated young people to emigrate by the tens of thousands.
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