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N1, Nova S, Danas and Radar changed hands this summer, and journalists say they are waiting to see what it means for their independence. With Serbia voting on October 25, the outcome matters for a community that pro-government tabloids have repeatedly targeted.
Two Balkan elections land within three weeks of each other this fall. Neither is being fought on LGBTQ+ rights directly, but the outcomes will shape whether EU-driven progress on partnership laws and gender recognition continues or stalls.
Days after thousands marched through Belgrade for Pride's 25th anniversary, Serbian LGBTI+ organizations are pressing the government to move on same-sex partnership and gender identity legislation that still doesn't exist.
Belgrade Pride Week closed Saturday with thousands marching through the capital demanding partnership and gender recognition laws Serbia still doesn't have — a quarter-century after riots nearly ended the event for good.
Pride Week wraps this weekend with Saturday's Pride Protest March through central Belgrade — the same familiar demands, a redrawn route, and a country in the middle of its own political reckoning.
As Belgrade Pride Week runs through September 6, here's where Serbian law actually stands on same-sex couples, gender recognition, and hate crimes — and why campaigners say none of it goes far enough.
Pride Week runs August 31 through September 6 in Belgrade, with this year's protest march confirmed for September 5 — a week of exhibitions, panels, and parties leading up to Serbia's most closely watched LGBTQ+ event.
Ahead of Belgrade Pride's 25th anniversary march, a caravan of activists touring smaller Serbian cities has been met with death threats, banned assemblies, and attacks on journalists — a sign of how uneven progress in Serbia really is.
Serbia's Pride Week runs August 31 to September 6, ending in a Saturday march whose route had to be redrawn this year. A look at what's changed, what hasn't, and what to expect if you're going.
With the march set for the first week of September, Belgrade Pride is heading into its most volatile year in over a decade, unfolding against a student-led uprising, street violence, and a government that has stopped pretending it's neutral.
Serbia scrapped its blanket ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men in mid-2025, replacing it with an individual risk assessment. Twelve months on, donors and health officials say the shift has held — with some caveats.
ILGA-Europe and ERA's 2026 Enlargement Review finds that five of ten EU accession hopefuls — including Bosnia and North Macedonia — now have documented LGBTI rights rollbacks, a category that barely existed in prior years' reports.
As Amsterdam hosts the global Pride movement this fortnight, the view from Tirana is a reminder that the distance between a canal parade and a still-banned march is measured in more than kilometers.
Thirty-two years after Serbia decriminalized gay sex, activists are asking the state to formally apologize to the men prosecuted under the old law — and to back the apology with concrete reforms.
With Pride Week set for August 31 to September 6 and the march on September 5, organizers have locked in their advocacy themes and a demand list that keeps the same-sex partnership law front and center.
Skopje, Sarajevo, Pristina, Belgrade — one Pride after another went off this season, many without incident. Living here, we've learned the real question isn't the march. It's the 51 weeks after it.
Belgrade is the undisputed center of queer life in Serbia — a city of underground history surfacing into the open, real nightlife, and a safety picture that rewards a little situational awareness. Here's how to approach it.
Serbia's laid-back second city hosts the final Novi Sad edition of EXIT Festival this July. Here's an honest, researched guide to visiting Novi Sad as a queer traveler — the vibe, the venues, and the street smarts.
A mid-year check-in from our base in the region: Pride season is behind us, the Rainbow Map has spoken, and EU accession keeps quietly reshaping the picture across the Balkans.
Serbia decriminalized gay sex in 1994. Now campaigners are asking the state to acknowledge everyone it punished before then — a demand about memory as much as law.
Pride season across the Balkans is ending for another summer. The parades were the easy part — the harder question is what protection looks like on the other 360 days.
Serbian police unlawfully banned a Pride event in the city of Kruševac, exposing a gap the capital's well-protected parade hides: outside Belgrade, the right to assemble as a queer person is still negotiable.
Serbia has an openly lesbian former prime minister, a Pride march that has run without a ban for over a decade, and still no legal recognition for same-sex couples. Reading the gap explains a lot about the region.
May 17 lands on Sunday — the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. From where we're sitting in Tirana, it feels less like a campaign moment and more like a stocktake. Some notes on what's planned across the Balkans.
If Brussels turns this week's parliamentary vote into a binding directive, six candidate countries will have to follow. Five of them have no ban on conversion practices at all.
Serbia's largest LGBTQ+ event will run September 1-7 with the parade on September 5. Organizers are accepting community proposals for Pride Week programming through the spring.
Lesbian Visibility Week 2026 runs through April 26 with programming across the UK, North America, and Western Europe. In the Balkans, queer women's visibility is a quieter, more complicated project — and the absence is not accidental.
From Belgrade to Sarajevo, same-sex couples face illness, bereavement, and parenthood without the legal standing every married heterosexual couple takes for granted. A decade of Pride marches has not yet produced a single enforceable partnership law across most of the region.
This year's Belgrade Pride is framing itself as a protest march first and a celebration second, joining forces with the student movement that has shaken Serbian politics since 2024.
Albania and Serbia are racing toward EU membership. The price of admission includes reforms on anti-discrimination, hate crimes, and LGBTQ+ protections — and the effects are already visible.
Belgrade has one of the most vibrant queer communities in the Balkans, with a growing Pride Week and a creative underground scene. Here's what LGBTQ+ travelers need to know about visiting Serbia's capital.
The Balkans are changing fast — but unevenly. Montenegro has legal civil unions. Serbia blocks progress despite 80% public support. Kosovo's PM is pushing for change. Bosnia's Ministry of Health is actively obstructing a partnership bill. Here's the full picture.
