Whose Pride? LGBT ‘Community’ and the Organization of Pride Parades in Serbia

Pride parades are increasingly considered a ‘litmus test’ of the status of LGBT rights in countries acceding to the European Union (East European Politics & Societies 25(4):834–851, 2011; Too proud to have pride? The EU’s (in)ability to promote LGBT equality in Serbia. In European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), ECPR Joint Sessions. Salamanca, Spain, 2014). Although this indicator function should be problematized rather than taken for granted, it is clear that by participating in such events, segments of the LGBT population enter and—at least temporarily—claim public space. Numerous attempts to organize Pride parades in Belgrade over the last 15 years warrant sociological attention, for at least two interrelated reasons: at a macro level, they represent an explosive convergence of multiple ideologies pertaining to patriarchy and ethno-nationalism, and a discourse on human rights, democratization and Europeanization, x. From a micro perspective—closer to my own interests—Pride parades constitute the tip of an iceberg, offering us insight into a complex geometry of social practices, forces and interests, not all of which are, individually or in combination, necessarily compatible with the overarching and sometimes illusive objective of advancing the LGBT cause.