English

Kalezić: Montenegrin parties are not even trying to get LGBTIQ support

“Election campaigns are still period when almost all the parties start to avoid LGBTIQ issues in public discourse”, said President of Steering Committee of Queer Montenegro Danijel Kalezić.

He said that they are not hoping for different scenario this time around.

“We will leave space for any political party to surprise as and show dedication to human rights, of which LGBTIQ rights are an inseparable part in all democratic societies”, Kalezić said.

He said that promotion and protection of LGBTIQ human rights was in the programs of some political parties during last years and that they had support from the Parliament.

Some parties left these matters to their youth organizations, and some work on it within institutions, but in a way that divorces those actions from parties, Kalezić believes.

“The rest of them avoid the subject completely, even those who tried to profit of our struggle in order to gain a few points with voters who have negative opinions of us”, Kalezić said.

When asked what are the conditions for a party to be seen as supportive of rights and freedoms of LGBTIQ community, he said that parties mostly oversee the fact that LGBTIQ persons are also voters.

Kalezić believes that parties are not trying hard enough to appeal to voters of this community.

As he said, in the international political scene, there were examples of dealing with LGBTIQ voters that lead to quality support for human rights in this community.

“Montenegro is yet to have such examples and I believe we will see more activity in this regard in the coming years”, he said.

Kalezić said that they expect direct support from individuals at the top of the parties, initiatives for improving legislation that will lead to equality for LGBTIQ community and continuous support for LGBTIQ events.

“I believe that LGBTIQ persons will recognize and appriciate such efforts, and use that knowledge to vote”, Kalezić said.

He thinks that the best way to show support to this community is to have a LGBT person on the list of some political party.

The party needs to give freedom of acting and decision making to this person, in accordance with human and legal rights, and ensure high position on the list so that the seat in the Parliament would be secured.

“I do not have any information that would lead me to believe that will happen during these elections”, Kalezić said, adding that there were no initiatives as far as his political engagement is concerned.

Send this to a friend