The study uses the survey on income and living conditions (SILC) to collect data on income, poverty, social exclusion, and living conditions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people in Serbia, allowing a robust comparison between the socioeconomic outcomes of sexual and gender minorities and the general population.
The Promotion and Protection of the Human Rights of Bisexual Persons
Balkans: The LGBT community is invisible
The young gay activist slowly stirs sugar into his coffee as he says he’s never had a boyfriend who would hold his hand in public.
“Most people from my generation are too scared to come out,” says 22-year-old Liridon Veliou, who works with the LGBT rights group QESh. Behind him, is a cafe scene from any European city – smartphones and MacBook computers illuminating the faces of young men and women against a backdrop of bookshelves stacked with 60s American novels.
But beyond the cafe’s terrace and its young, open-minded clientele, lies a country where 81% of the LGBT community has suffered threats or insults because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is the highest rate of discrimination in the western Balkans, according to a 2015 poll by the National Democracy Institute. The statistics are a sharp reminder that, despite appearances, this isn’t London or Rome – this is Pristina, capital of Kosovo.
On paper, Kosovo looks modern and inclusive – its progressive constitution written in the aftermath of the 1998-99 war includes a ban of discrimination based on sexual orientation. But LGBT groups say this image contradicts reality.