Croatia’s LGBT Community Spooked by Nightclub Attack

Although many LGBT people still face insults and discrimination every now and then, they aren’t targeted for outright attack. Or at least they didn’t until tear gas was set off in the club during the LGBT party at the Super Super club in the early hours of February 12.

“In the toilet, some people said ‘tear gas’, and after that, it was easier because I realised we wouldn’t die after all. I touched my face and realized it was not burned although it continued to hurt,” Grgic recalled.

“There was panic in the club. People were screaming ‘my eyes, I can’t breathe’. In front of a small window, there were 15 people trying to breathe fresh air. I remember that the music continued to play and I wondered why it was still playing while we were dying here. Significantly, it was playing Shakira and her song ‘La Tortura’,” she added.

The tear gas attack prompted LGBT rights group Zagreb Pride to organise a protest entitled ‘Love Is and Remains Stronger than Hate’ the following day, which attracted more than 1,000 people. 

The government strongly condemned the attack and promised a rapid investigation.

“The Croatian government will resolutely oppose any form of violence and hate speech, racial, religious and gender discrimination in the fight for equality, human dignity and safety of all our citizens,” it said.

Protester ridiculing the Croatian WWII fascist chant ‘Za dom spremni’ (‘Ready for the Home(land)’). Photo: Beta

Rights groups have demanded further action, however.

“This attack clearly shows that the thin line between hate and violence has been crossed,” Ivan Novosel, a member of the Zagreb Pride NGO, told BIRN.

“The hatred against the LGBT community has been increasing in Croatia since 2013 when the controversial referendum constitutionally defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. This violence had to come sooner or later,” he suggested.

Novosel argued that Croatia is seen as a country that respects LGBT rights because of its anti-discrimination law and its recognition of same-sex civil partnerships, but he said that prejudice is not being tackled in practice.

“Legislation is not enough, we need stronger political willpower to end the problem of LGBT discrimination,” he said.

In 2013, Zagreb Pride conducted the largest Croatian survey of LGBTIQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Questioning) people, asking them about their experiences of violence, discrimination and hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The results showed that since 2006, more than 70 per cent of the participants had experienced some form of violence. Only a small number of participants, fewer than 10 per cent, reported this violence to the police or to LGBT organisations. 

“They don’t report violence and they underplay it because they are afraid that they won’t have the support of society,” Novosel explained.

He also mentioned a survey conducted by the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, in which more than half of the high-school students questioned said that they think that homosexuality is a disease.

Marino Cajdo was one of the people who joined the last week’s protest – to send a clear message that LGBT people are not afraid and will not stay off the streets, he said.

Cajdo said he was disappointed that something like this happened in 2017, but warned that the tear gas attack is not an isolated incident.

“This town has never been a safe place for those who look different. I‘m speaking as a gay person and I must admit that I don’t feel safe. When I walk at night and see drunk people on the street, I instinctively cross the road,” Cajdo told BIRN.

“At least once a year someone yells ‘faggot’ at me. My boyfriend and I were attacked last year but we managed to escape. People are afraid to report such incidents so there is a sense that there is no violence at all,” he said.

Gordan Bosanac from the Centre for Peace Studies said that although the situation is much better today than 15 years ago, he believes that the fight for equality must continue.

“Since Croatia joined the EU [in 2013], the number of attacks on LGBT events has declined, but LGBT rights are still in jeopardy, not so much from political elites but rather from other radical groups who hide behind civil society and do what political parties are not allowed to do publicly,” Bosanac argued.

Zagreb Pride said that the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ party had changed its image under the new leadership of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, a more moderate, pro-European politician than his more nationalist and conservative predecessor, the situation has worsened over the past year.

Campaigners allege that while government officials condemned the nightclub incident, they have failed in the past to tackle hate speech and therefore given confidence to homophobic attackers.

Nevertheless, Bosanac said, Croatia has made significant progress.

“From being a completely marginalised and ridiculed theme, LGBT rights today are one of the key indicators of the quality of democracy in Croatia. Therefore it is not surprising that for the first time, the HDZ has reacted swiftly to this attack,” he explained.

“My impression is that LGBT people in larger communities can live much more freely today than 10 years ago. The biggest challenge is the homophobia that is rooted in our society. From time to time, homophobia comes alive and turns into violence. The fear of violence has not yet disappeared,” he concluded.