19 Jul Montenegro: Minister of Labour and Welfare backs country’s first ever Pride parade
The Labour and Welfare Minister of Montenegro has said that he is willing to support the country’s first ever Pride parade planned to be held in October.
Predrag Boskovic offered his backing for the Pride parade after meeting representatives of ‘Queer Montenegro’, a gay rights organisation, on Wednesday.
In July, the organisation said that it was determined to organise a parade by October to be held in Montenegro’s capital city, Podgorica.
The plan was made after a previous attempt to hold Pride in the city was cancelled due to violence.
Mr Boskovic told the group that a gay parade “will be an opportunity for Montenegro to show that it is working on improving their status in the society.”
Jelko Kacin, the vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s delegation for the Western Balkans and a member of the LGBT Intergroup, said earlier this month that a Pride parade would help the country’s EU membership talks.
Last year, Mr Kacin commented that Montenegro’s candidacy to join the EU ““welcomes the recent adoption of the Law Against Discrimination, which explicitly mentions sexual orientation and gender identity”.
Montenegro’s first Pride parade, organised by rights activist Zdravko Cimbaljevic, was supposed to have taken place on May 31, 2011.
Source: Pink news