The litmus test of pride: analysing the emergence of the Belgrade “Ghost” pride in the context of EU accession

ABSTRACT

The transformation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights into a “standard for civilisation” has not been without consequences. With LGBT Pride parades becoming a symbol for Europeanness in the European Union (EU) accession process, this article asks how the litmus test character of Belgrade Pride has transformed LGBT politics in Serbia. Empirically, the analysis provides an in-depth analysis of how Serbia’s EU accession process has shaped the politics of Belgrade Pride between 2001 and 2015 and vice versa. It is argued that the international symbolic usage of Pride is no innocent practice as it has foreclosed its local politicality. Indeed, whilst Belgrade Pride became politicised as a litmus test in the EU accession process, domestically it developed into an apolitical ritualised event devoid of LGBT politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Pride parade
• LGBT
• Serbia
• Europeanisation
• standard of civilization
• pink-testing

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Proud in Europe? LGBTI Emancipation in Comparative Perspective conference in 2016 and the 2017 Annual Convention of the Association for the Studies of Nationalities, where it received the best doctoral student paper award. In addition to the participants of both conferences, the author would also like to thank Phillip Ayoub, Martijn Mos and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on previous versions of the manuscript which helped to strengthened the argument of the article considerably. This article is part of the author’s doctoral research which was funded by Queen Mary University of London’s Queen Mary Westfield Trust Research Studentship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Koen Slootmaeckers is a Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London. His recently finished doctoral dissertation examined the Europeanisation of LGBT rights in Serbia, focussing on anti-discrimination legislation and the Pride Parades. He is the editor of the volume EU Enlargement and Gay Politics: The Impact of Eastern Enlargement on Rights, Activism, and Prejudice (with Heleen Touquet and Peter Vermeersch; Palgrave 2016). Koen Slootmaeckers is also an affiliated researcher at the Leuven International and European Studies (LINES) at the University of Leuven.

ORCID

Koen Slootmaeckers http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1189-5095

Notes

1 Interview with an anonymous official from Ministry without Portfolio responsible for EU Integration, 12 November 2015, London/Belgrade, mail interview.

2 Interview with an anonymous official from European Commission (DG Enlargement), 6 March 2014, Brussels, face-to-face interview.

3 Interview with anonymous officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, 23 April 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

4 The usage of the term community does not reflect the on the ground reality in Serbia – as an LGBT (political) community does not seem to exist. The term here should be read in relation to Pride's Western origin which was rooted in an LGBT community that together rose up against oppression.

5 Interview with Miloš Urošević, Women in Black, 14 September 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

6 This observation is in line with previous scholarship. For example, Bilić (2016b) has argued that Pride in Serbia is a reflection of the globalisation of gay identity, whilst Mikuš (2011) also highlighted how the 2010 Pride Parade had a remarkable international, if not European, character.

7 For a more detailed study on why LGBT people have withdrawn from the Belgrade Pride, see Stojčić (2014).

8 Interview with Aleksandar Prica, Asocijаcijа DUGA, 30 April 2015, Šabac, face-to-face interview.

9 Interview with Slobodan (Boban) Stojanović, Belgrade Pride, 23 September 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

10 Interview with Aleksandar Prica, Asocijаcijа DUGA, 30 April 2015, Sabac, face-to-face interview.

11 Interview with Slobodan (Boban) Stojanović, Belgrade Pride, 23 September 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

12 Interview with anonymous activist from Gayten-LGBT, 18 May 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

13 Interview with an anonymous official from European Commission (DG Enlargement), 30 July 2013, Brussels, face-to-face interview.

14 Interview with Marko Karadžić, Former State Secretary of the Minister for Human and Minority Rights, 29 April 2015, Belgrade/Washington DC, Skype interview.

15 Interview with anonymous officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, 23 April 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

16 The riots can be described as state-condoned as the police efforts to prevent the riots were rather limited. In the name of police impartiality, opponents of the Pride were given ample opportunities to protest against the Pride and organise for the riots.

17 (Then) Prime Minister Vučić's characterisation of Pride as a “leisurely walk” in 2014 perfectly illustrate this depoliticisation.

18 This transfer of ownership is further aided by the increasing conflict between LGBT organisation about the usefulness of Pride, and the what some perceive as the hegemonisation of the Pride by the current organisers, who not only have become disconnected from the LGBT people, but also from the activist community.

19 Interview with Aleksandar Prica, Asocijаcijа DUGA, 30 April 2015, Šabac, face-to-face interview.

20 Interview with Predrag Azdejković, Gay Lesbian Info Center, 02 June 2014, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

21 Interview with Igor Vojvodić, a former activist from Gay Straight Alliance, 10 May 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

22 This reference to the government's political will has to be read in relation to the explicit reference to the lack of political will to organise Pride in the EU's 2013 progress report.

23 Interview with Maja Mičić, YiHR – Youth Initiative for Human Rights / Former Pride Organiser, 30 October 2015, London/Belgrade, Skype interview.

24 Or as Brown (2006, 98–99) writes: “the tolerance [for the gay Pride] the state urges on the citizenry is secured through our averted glance, by kind of visual privatisation that is a ghostly repetition of the actual privatisation of sexuality required if homosexuals are to be tolerated at all.”

25 Interview with Anita Mitić, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, 18 May 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

26 Interview with Igor Vojvodić, a former activist from Gay Straight Alliance, 10 May 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

27 Interview with Igor Vojvodić, a former activist from Gay Straight Alliance, 10 May 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.

28 Interview with Maja Mičić, YiHR – Youth Initiative for Human Rights / Former Pride Organiser, 30 October 2015, London/Belgrade, Skype interview.

29 Interview Predrag Azdejković, Gay Lesbian Info Center / Organiser Trans* Pride, 23 September 2015, Belgrade, face-to-face interview.