Orthodox Church in Montenegro Will Have a March Against Pride

 

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has called for a mass religious rally for the ‘preservation of the family ahead of the tenth Pride march in the capital Podgorica, which is scheduled for Saturday. 

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro said on Tuesday that a religious gathering will be organized in front of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica the day before Saturday’s Pride march in the Montenegrin capital.

The church urged believers to gather and pray to uphold the sanctity of marriage and ensure the preservation of the family on Friday.

“In our country events are held that directly destroy God-blessed marriage and the family and destroy traditional values. We live in a time of instinctive totalitarianism where sin, selfishness, and self-love are set as a measure of love, truth, and freedom,” the church said in a press release.

The tenth Montenegrin Pride, organized by NGO Queer Montenegro, will be held on Saturday in Podgorica.

The head of Queer Montenegro, Milos Knezevic, said on September 30 that number of Montenegrin citizens who accept the LGBT community is increasing.

“Also, we are increasingly building our chosen families in which we receive the support we deserve and which strengthens us. We are fighting for the survival of what forms the foundation of the family – support, love, perseverance and care,” Knezevic told media.

At the first-ever Montenegro Pride march, in 2014, more than 500 protesters, mostly football hooligans, hurled rocks and bottles at the small march staged by only a few dozen gay activists. Since then, there have been no protests against Pride marches in the country.

On September 19, thousands of people took part in EuroPride 2022 in the Serbian capital, despite tensions amid threats from far-right and anti-LGBT groups and an earlier ban by the Serbian Interior Minister over alleged “security concerns”.

In advance of the EuroPride event, thousands of people gathered in Belgrade city center on August 15 to demonstrate against it, claiming they wanted to ‘protect the family.

On September 12, Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije said that all churches will hold the daily prayer for the sanctity of marriage and the family and harmony and peace for the Serbian people.

“We do not impose our way of life on anyone, but we also do not want anyone from any part of the world to impose their values on us,” Patriarch Porfirije said.

In 2020, Montenegro became the first non-EU Balkan state to legalize same-sex partnerships. Earlier surveys have suggested that 71 percent of citizens in Montenegro still view homosexuality as an illness and that every second citizen sees it as a danger to society and wants the state to suppress it.