Activists protest for LGBTQ+ rights at the March of Tolerance 15 Nov 2014 in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. Photo by Coalition Margins, used with permission.
The LGBTQ+ community in North Macedonia announced the country will hold its first pride parade ever on June 29, 2019, in the capital Skopje.
North Macedonia will join a group of Balkan countries that have recently announced or held their first gay pride parades. Earlier this month, Bosnia and Herzegovina said it'll hold its first pride march in September 2019, while Kosovo held its second-ever march in October 2018.
North Macedonia's march was made public by the National Network on Fight Against Homophobia and Transphobia in a press conference on May 20. Irena Cvetkovic, an activist with the group, said:
A very difficult period has passed for the LGBT community and we consider that now is the moment for a Pride Parade, because we passed the worst. North Macedonia is the last country in the region that organizes a Pride Parade.
Cvetkovic was referring to the 2006-2017 rule of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, a period when homophobic violence was markedly tolerated by government officials
During the 11-year period, Skopje witnessed a spate of violent attacks against LGBTQ+ organizations and people, and right-wing politicians and pro-government media were openly hostile to this population.
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