Christian priests and nuns held a ceremony to ‘purify’ Belgrade after an annual Pride parade was held.
The group said prayers, preached, and sang hymns whilst they held banners which had slogans saying “Gay Shame Never in Public Life”, “Shame on You”, and “Nevermore”.
One priest said: “Why do they have to go public and parade? Why? I’ll tell you why. They want to recruit and to spoil the next generations.”
The ceremony was intended to purify the city following the parade which celebrated LGBT rights with the theme ‘love heals the world’.
Hundreds of LGBT people and supporters marched through the city last weekend and they were protected by thousands of police officers and helicopters for fears of another extremist attack similar to the violent stand-offs that took place in 2010.
It was the third year the event was successfully held since the parade was allowed to start again in 2014. Previously, parades in 2011, 2012 and 2013 were all banned by authorities over fears of violence.
Serbia is still conservative on LGBT rights. Homosexuality only became legal nationwide in 1994, an there is still no recognition of same-sex relationships.
Same-sex marriage is not recognised in the country.
The parade was banned for 4 years because in 2010 around 100 people were injured at the event during violent stand-offs with far-right extremists, who threw petrol bombs at the police and gay rights activists.
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