Montenegrin Pride Organizers Want Same-Sex Law Fully Implemented

Respecting the COVID-19 health measures, all participants will need to present a vaccine certificate or a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours, or a negative antigen test not older than 48 hours, or confirmation of recovery from COVID not older than six months and not more recent than 14 days.

The organizers of the Pride, Queer Montenegro, an NGO, said their supporters will be pushing for the government to properly implement the same-sex partnership law.

Danijel Kalezic, from Queer Montenegro, said the law's legal framework still wasn't complete, so the LGBTQ community was still unable to use all the rights provided by the law.

"After the same-sex partnership law was adopted a year ago, only a few laws were amended and the rest are in process. We demand that the government complete this process and send amendments to the laws to parliament for adoption," Kalezic told the media.

Wider legal framework requires amendments

Montenegrin gay activists and supporters take part in 2019 Pride march in Podgorica, Montenegro.Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC

The first same-sex partnership in Montenegro was registered in the coastal resort of Budva on July 26, while four other marriages were registered in Podgorica and the coastal town of Bar.

These pioneering same-sex unions came a year after Montenegro became the first non-EU Balkan state to legalize same-sex partnerships.

In July 2020, parliament voted to recognize same-sex civil partnerships with the support of a very narrow majority of MPs from the then ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, the Social Democrats, the Liberal Party and the opposition Social Democratic Party.

Montenegro failed twice before to adopt laws on same-sex unions - in...

Continue reading on: