Original article (in Serbian) was published on 08/06/2022
In September, Europride – the European Pride Parade – should be held in Belgrade, which a significant part of the public in Serbia does not welcome. In recent days, activity against this event has increased on social networks – petitions for a ban are circulating, videos from gay parades around the world are being shared, followed by insults and threats against this population, as well as a lot of fake news. Incorrect claims that LGBT organizations want to normalize pedophilia appeared on Twitter, while in Viber groups, people are trying to prove that homosexuality is a disease.
“Because of this, he would be weaned from gayness forever, I tell you, I only need two minutes to count his ribs”, wrote a member of the Viber group “LRNE – parenting meeting”, known for promoting ivermectin in the treatment of coronavirus and other misinformation. This threat referred to a photo of a man, a member of the LGBT population, from the Pride Parade held in Greece in 2018. The man wore a dress with the image of Saint Nicholas.
A lot of insults at the expense of this population followed, but there were also those whose approach was more “academic”.
“THIS SCIENTIST CAUSED CHAOS IN THE WORLD: “Homosexuality is a deviation of the brain! I also have evidence!” Twenty years ago, a riot was caused in our country (the Netherlands) due to the scientific discovery of Dick Swaab. Cerebral bump that is larger in homosexuals than in other people”, wrote another member of the group, apparently copying the text translated via Google Translate.
Dick Svaab is a controversial but recognized Dutch neurobiologist who devoted his career to studying the human brain. He is known precisely for the claims that sexual orientation is formed in the womb due to the action of various hormones and chemical substances.
The public repeatedly disputed his findings, especially feminists, because he advocated biological determinism – that male and female brains are biologically different, and that the difference between the sexes is not exclusively a social construct. Part of the LGBT population also disputed his findings, claiming that he was trying to present homosexuality as a disease.
His finding – that in gay men, one part of the brain (the so-called “suprachaismatic nucleus”, which in the Viber group is called the “brain tubercle”) is enlarged compared to heterosexual men – other researchers failed to confirm.
In an interview with the British Guardian in 2014, he failed to explain this fact and stuck to his “gay brain” claim. However, he believes that people can live a happy life only if they can live the way their brain is programmed.
“The state should accept that and guarantee their freedom (…) You should have the freedom to live as a homosexual, transsexual, heterosexual and be protected by the state”, he told the Guardian.
The attitude that homosexuality is a disease has long been overcome and outdated since it was removed as a diagnosis from the list of diseases by the American Psychiatric Association in the early seventies. This happened after scientific research and social theories showed that homosexuality is a normal state, not a disorder.
In addition to this case, a fake post by the LGBT News organization appeared on Twitter in which they claim “Love is love” and provide a photo suggesting that love knows no gender, no race, no religion, and no age – even when it comes to a ten-year-old child and a 36-year-old person.
Back in 2020, the organization LGBT News denied to Reuters that it had ever published such a post, and that it was a “poor attempt at photoshopping”, of which various versions exist on the Internet.
“We are against any form of pedophilia”, they told Reuters.
Raskrikavanje has already written about attempts to use fake news to link homosexuality and pedophilia.
Fighters against LGBT rights are trying to prevent Europride from being held in Belgrade, and two petitions are already circulating. One was initiated by the “Movement of the Serbian Parliament”, and the other was initiated by the people behind the Facebook group “Antiglobalists of Serbia”, which has more than 2,700 signatures.
In the homophobic description of the petition, they state that it is a “sinister globalist menace that threatens to destroy the greatest value of the Serbian people, which is the family”, that in recent years members of this population “occupy prime ministerial and ministerial positions in the Government of Serbia, which speaks of the advanced stage of the disease of our society”, and that they pass laws that cause young people to leave Serbia.
“For this event, tens of thousands of members of the LGBT population should come to Belgrade from abroad, which necessarily brings with it the risk of the spread of the most serious infectious diseases, as well as a pronounced security risk for the citizens of Serbia and their property”, write these “protectors” of the Serbian traditions.
One of the arguments that work for them is the monkeypox epidemic, registered to a significant extent among members of the LGBT population. These smallpox are mistakenly considered a “gay disease”, which Raskrikavanje also wrote about.
