LOVE FOR ALL!

Thursday, 22 March 2007 10:59

The Campaign against violence and discrimination against same-sex oriented individuals 


We are starting the campaign Love for all! because of a certain homophobia degree in our society, because of different discriminatory forms and violence lesbian and gay population in Serbia encounter.

Following the long-term efforts to create some legislation changes (Serbia today has four laws where discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited), still, there is no general anti-discriminatory act, and the legal system is still blind to the hate crimes.

The sway of the previous wars on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia has also left numerous consequences. The growth of nationalism, militant atmosphere, lack of democratic values have all brought homophobia become a legitimate means and justification for disqualification of the cruelest forms of physical violence. Generally speaking, the political and cultural climate are still very repressive towards sexually marginalized groups. 

Campaigning against violence and discrimination against the same sex oriented individuals entitled Love for All! not only do we wish to warn public about the degree of homophobia in Serbia, but to inspire positive changes and create space that would generate a more tolerant society where equality and respect of the rights for all its citizens of both sexes would make one of its imperatives.

• Increasing visibility of violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Through this campaign we wish to open a series of questions, before all that of a public space responsibility area.

Who creates a public space and in what way? What can provoke a sensationalistic approach to the lesbian and gay issues? The responsibility of the media in spreading homophobia? Are there affirmative progresses when presenting lesbian and gay culture? 

These are only some of the important questions to which we will offer answers during the campaign.

• Informing the Public

Problems of discrimination and violence against lesbians and gay men are permanently kept aside.

With the campaign Love for All! we wish to inform the broader public about the degree of homophobia in our society, as well as about its consequences.

Moreover, we wish to promote affirmative initiatives in Serbia relating to lesbian and gay culture and rights.

• Initiation and support of the positive changes in the society

We firmly believe in making a positive move in increasing visibility of violence and discrimination against the same sex oriented individuals through this campaign. Furthermore we believe it would contribute to the affirmation of lesbian and gay men human rights as an inseparable part of the broader human rights corpus. 

Apart from working in the area of legislation, we thing it is immensely important to work at the same time on the broader cultural picture, since without changing or offering different values, the legislation would remain disinterested.

There is a certain number of cultural institutions, publishing houses and persons form public life in Serbia who through their work and engagements support lesbian and gay culture and equality values affirmation. Within this campaign we wish to support such initiatives and provide them with public importance and speak publicly with the initiators about their reasons for starting such actions and what feedback they have.


The campaign includes two large elementary parts:

• Billboards, postcards, posters, leaflets...

After long consideration and numerous consultations, the visual campaign identity has been envisioned thus to communicate with the broader public audience. All printed materials, including the billboards, there will be an open book with the campaign slogan and a photograph of a lesbian and gay couple. The models engaged for the campaign are not professionals, they are form our daily surroundings and their acceptance to be photographed for this reason comes from their disagreement with the violence and discrimination faced by lesbians and gays in Serbia, as well as their solidarity support to our initiative. It is interesting to be said that there are lesbians, gays and heterosexuals among professional models – and we wish to play on the stereotypes and prejudices we encounter on daily basis.

• Public Discussion

The middle part of the campaign is reserved for public discussion where individuals from different public life domains that, in a certain way, take part in the creation of the cultural and political climate in Serbia. We want to start the first public discussion in Serbia where we will stress the affirmative engagement regarding the lesbian and gay culture and human rights.

In cooperation with our friends and also with the media we will inform the Serbian public about the violence and discrimination but in addition we would provide information on the culture and rights of the same sex oriented individuals, which would certainly contribute to the acceptance within the broader public.

Questions, comments and suggestions can be put on: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


The campaign has been started by Labris – the lesbian human rights organization from Belgrade and the following organizations supported it:

Gayten (Belgrade), LAMBDA – Centre for promotion and enhancement of LGBT human rights and Queer culture (Niš-Kragujevac), LGBT SOS Hotline (Belgrade), Association "Rainbow" (Šabac), NLO – Novi Sad Lesbian Organization (Novi Sad), Queer Belgrade Collective (Belgrade), Queeria – Centre for promotion of non-violent culture and equality (Belgrade), Safe Pulse of Youth (Belgrade), Taboo (Zrenjanin).

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