Bosnia and Herzegovina is set to finally have its first Pride in the capital of Sarajevo, on 8 September 2019. The initiative to organize the event came from 15 activists from different cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Prijedor, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Bijeljina and Tuzla. The slogan of the Pride is Ima izać’. The event is already announced to the relevant state institutions, such as Ministry of transport and Ministry of internal affairs of the Sarajevo Canton. The organizers called everyone to join the event and express solidarity, as LGBT persons are exposed to discrimination in their everyday lives – at work, in schools, in institutions, within their own families or in the streets. Also, they stated that they fight for everyone who is discriminated against in the country.
This way, Sarajevo will finally join other cities in the region that host Pride events. Tirana (Albania) will have its Pride on 18 May and Belgrade (Serbia) will host two Pride events – Ponos Srbije on 29 June and Belgrade Pride on 15 September, while Pride in Pristina (Kosovo) is scheduled for 10 October. Pride events will be also happening in Split (Croatia), Zagreb (Croatia) on 8 june, Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 22 June and Podgorica (Montenegro) in the autumn. Novi Sad (Serbia) will host its very first Pride Week 13 – 17 May. We hope Skopje to join soon and Istanbul to shine again on the rainbow map of Europe!