23 Apr LGBT Forum Progress strongly condemns the attacks on LGBT activists in Macedonia
LGBT Forum Progress from Montenegro strongly condemns the recent occurrence of hate crime and hate speech committed against the LGBT activists in Macedonia. The recent increase in the number of attacks and threats is the clear result of the visibility campaigns LGBT activists in Macedonia are conducting at the moment. It is clear that, in Macedonia, similar to the majority of the Balkan countries, the great percentage of population is homophobic and transphobic, which can clearly be seen in trough the cases of attacks and threats towards the LGBT activists and the overall LGBT population
LGBT Forum Progress condemns the attack on LGBT activists from ‘LGBT United’ and the Coalition ‘Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities’ during their street action on promoting LGBT rights in Bitola, Macedonia.
The activists were brutally attacked and the posters on promoting sexual diversities were destroyed. The activists who were involved in the visibility campaign have been brutally beaten. The case has been reported to the police immediately but now the same activists are being threatened. The homophobic individuals have acquired the photographs of the LGBT activists, and have publicly posted the photos on the social networks calling upon their lynch and saying the activists will never be allowed to set foot in the city of Bitola.
This kind of behavior towards the citizens of Macedonia, the LGBT activists is unacceptable and we strongly urge the Ministry of internal affairs take measures for the detection and punishing the perpetrators.