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PRESS-CLIPPING - June 2005. |
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The summer is back Since hardly anything in Croatia happens smoothly, I am not surprised that there has been so much fuss about the organization of this year’s Zagreb Pride. For those who do not keep pace with recent events, the fuss happens with finding the organizer. Two leading homosexual/lesbian associations, Iskorak and Kontra, have previously changed as organizers, and this year it is Iskorak’s turn, whose president gives a public statement that his organization Iskorak is way beyond this type of communicating with the public through parades. He forgets to explain what is going to happen with the money Iskorak has got from the City Office for Culture for the organization of Zagreb Pride 2005. Girls from Kontra do not have enough money to organize it themselves and find their way out of this. Since there are still people in Croatia who realize the importance of organizing Pride, a new ad hoc activist group Epikriza is founded and its members take the complete organization on themselves. Do I need to stress that they also have not received any money, but they decided to enter such a demanding and important challenge. Nevertheless, Zagreb Pride 2005 will take place July 10. I sincerely wish it to be successful, because this year, with the dramatic rise of violence and recent pedophile affairs where the main actors are identified as homosexuals, Pride is maybe needed more than ever. A public discussion on legalization and decriminalization of prostitution begins this month by guest lecture of Janice G. Raymond, American professor of ethics from the University of Massachusets, with attending representatives of women’s nongovernmental organizations and parliamentary parties. Although, much has been said about legalization, ever since the past government and Šime Luèin, former minister of police, the most dust was raised by the unionist Boris Kunst who said several moths ago that the opponents of legalization of prostitution were fake moralists and offered the idea of prostitutes registering their activities as entrepreneurship, having greater social rights, medical insurance and union. Minister Kosor said that this would definitely not happen during her mandate in the Government. Women’s Network Croatia is naturally one of the greatest opponents of this idea offering some pretty plausible arguments. No matter what the politicians decide in the end, it is very likely that this prostitution will still be the job of poor and unhappy women, who get the worst of it. Branimira Mrak |
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