The Coalition “Together for LGBT Rights” hereby expresses its support for Montenegro Pride 2020 and Pride Week, which lasts from 14 to 20 December 2020, organized by Queer Montenegro, with the support of the Spectra Association, NGO Juventas and the Association of LBTQ Women Stana, through the Organizational Montenegro Pride 2020 Board, and invites all institutions, organizations, companies and associations to join that support.
The “Together for LGBT Rights” Coalition supports all the requests of the LGBTIQ community made during the Pride Week announcement. We are supporting the legal protection of rights of LGBTIQ persons, and primarily full functionality and implementation of the recently passed Law on Life Partnership of Same-Sex Persons. This Law represents one of the greatest achievements of the LGBTIQ community in the field of human rights, a significant step forward for our country, as well as a goal for which the LGBTIQ community has long fought and fought by resisting prejudice and stereotypes, discrimination and violence. The Coalition reiterates its request to the Government of Montenegro and the competent authorities to do everything possible to ensure the implementation of this Law, and to adopt regulations that will enable the LGBTIQ community to have all human rights.
We also advocate the adoption of the Law on Gender Identity based on self-determination, which will enable respect of the right to personal integrity of transgender people and abolish the inhumane practice of necessary sterilization as a precondition for legal gender recognition, which is a practice we must resist.
The Coalition is mainly committed to the need to ensure legal protection, adequate and fair prosecution of hate crimes against the LGBTIQ community, which is a request that the Organizing Committee of Montenegro Pride directed to the police and the prosecution.
The Coalition “Together for LGBT Rights” urges the Government and the entire society to do their utmost to develop additional support programmes for LGBTIQ persons facing the problems in the community based on sexual orientation and gender identity but also economic insecurity, unemployment, nepotism, poverty, etc.
This year’s slogan of Montenegro Pride is “I AM A SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE” and its purpose is to remind us that lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, intersex and queer people (LGBTIQ) have been and remain a symbol of Montenegro’s resistance. Therefore, the Coalition calls on all public institutions, organizations, companies and associations to join the symbols of resistance to homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes, violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity, marginalization, hatred, aggression, oppression, fascism, patriarchy, exploitation, poverty, etc. and thus highlight human rights support for LGBTIQ persons.
Being a member of the LGBTQI community in Montenegro has always been challenging, and hence LGBTQI people, as someone different, who stands out from the crowd, have always resisted. Montenegro Pride 2020 is a call for resistance to all types of oppression and discrimination, as these are destroying lives. We stand by all LGBTIQ people as symbols of resistance and support to the fight for equal human rights regardless of personal characteristics, primarily sexual orientation and gender identity.
Centre for Civic Education (CCE) is a member of the Coalition “Together for LGBT Rights”.