UKgayNews: Football fans’ graffiti calls for murder of gays

Outraged Gay Community in Belgrade Demand FIFA Action Over Hate Graffiti

BELGRADE, August 10, 2009  –  The failure of the Football Association of Serbia and two clubs in Belgrade to distance themselves from homophobic messages and calls to murder of gay persons which appear in graffiti across the city, bearing the ‘signature’ of fans from the Partizan and Red Star Belgrade has so outraged gays that they have written to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world governing body for football, demanding action.

Many buildings in the city bear the graffiti with homophobic messages, including calls for the murder of gays.

Most are ‘signed’ by Red Star Belgrade and Partizan fan groups, the GayEcho website claims.

Two weeks ago, the Gay and Lesbian Info Center in Belgrade and other non-governmental organisations requested the Football Association of Serbia and the management of the two clubs to publicly distance themselves from these messages and to condemn the calls to murder of gay persons.

But the plea has fallen on deaf ears.  So a letter has been sent to FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

“Please, help us in the struggle against homophobia and violence against the LGBT population in Serbia,” the letter pleads.

The hate messages come ahead of the Belgrade Gay Pride parade, which is scheduled for September 20.

“It’s scary to walk through Belgrade because you will [the graffiti] on every corner,” Predrag Azdejkovic, the editor-in-chief of the GayEcho Website, told UK Gay News this morning.

“Belgrade’s major Dragan Djilas said that he is against the Pride Parade and that he doesn’t see why  anyone should parade his or her sexual orientation and show it publicly.  He said that he is against violence.

“Importantly, he is worried because this graffiti is sending a bad message about Belgrade – and makes the city look ugly.

“But nobody is cleaning this graffiti’s from Belgrade’s walls,” he pointed out.

This morning, FIFA was invited to comment.  UK Gay News is awaiting their comment, which will either appear here as an update or in a separate article.

www.ukgaynews.org.uk