ERA - LGBTI Equal Rights Association

Democratic space does not protect itself. It is defended wherever people come together to organise, exchange knowledge and act in solidarity.

Applications are now open for the ERA LGBTIQ+ Regional Conference 2026, taking place from 1–3 October 2026 in Podgorica, Montenegro, under the theme:
Protecting Democratic Space and Addressing Threats to LGBTI Equality in Europe

The conference will bring together activists, human rights defenders, civil society organisations, institutional representatives, researchers and community leaders from across the Western Balkans, Türkiye, Eastern Europe and beyond.

Over three days, participants will examine the growing pressures on democratic space and LGBTI equality, exchange experiences and effective practices, strengthen regional cooperation and explore joint advocacy strategies. On 3 October, participants will also join Montenegro Pride 2026.

Travel, accommodation and meals during the official programme will be covered, with visa support provided where required.

📅 Application deadline: 16 August 2026, 23:59 CET

🔗 Apply on the link: https://lnkd.in/eFBP6-ku

Bring your experience, perspective and ideas into the regional conversation.

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ERA is inviting LGBTQIA+ activists and civil society organisation members to apply for an Anti-Burnout Retreat in Montenegro, taking place from 27 to 30 September 2026.

Created for people working in challenging and often hostile environments, the retreat will offer a supportive and confidential space to pause, rest and reconnect.

Participants will have opportunities to join facilitated group sessions and relaxation activities, receive individual support, spend time in nature, or simply rest at their own pace.

Applications are open to people based in: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

The number of places is limited.

Complete the application questionnaire by 11 August 2026 at 23:59 CET through the link in our Bio.

The present call for application is launched by ERA within the framework of the FIER·ES programme (Fostering the Inclusion, Equality and Resilience of LGBTQIA+ people). FIER·ES aims to support LGBTQIA+ CSOs and initiatives so that they are better able to carry out their mandate and mission and promote respect, inclusion, dignity and equality for LGBTQIA+ people in the Eastern Partnership countries and the Western Balkans. It is coordinated by ERIM and implemented together with ERA and Genderdoc – M (Moldova). The programme is co-funded by Agence française de développement.

ERA is launching a Call for Proposals for civil society organisations, collectives and networks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia to develop and implement advocacy or awareness-raising campaigns and initiatives that can create meaningful change.

Selected applicants can receive: a grant of up to €9,000; optional, tailored mentoring support and up to 10 months for implementation, starting in October 2026.

We welcome initiatives that challenge discrimination, strengthen public awareness, influence policies and practices, create space for informed dialogue, and advance the visibility and inclusion of LGBTIQ+ communities.

Proposed actions may include advocacy and strategic communication campaigns, policy and research-based advocacy, public discussions, media and digital outreach, cultural initiatives, Pride events, film screenings, community events and other creative approaches to advancing LGBTIQ+ rights.

Applicants must have been active for at least two years and may submit one proposal.

🗓️ Application deadline: 25 August 2026 at 23:59 CEST

Learn more and download the application package: Link in Bio



The present call for application is launched by ERA within the framework of the FIER·ES programme (Fostering the Inclusion, Equality and Resilience of LGBTQIA+ people). FIER·ES aims to support LGBTQIA+ CSOs and initiatives so that they are better able to carry out their mandate and mission and promote respect, inclusion, dignity and equality for LGBTQIA+ people in the Eastern Partnership countries and the Western Balkans. It is coordinated by ERIM and implemented together with ERA and Genderdoc – M (Moldova). The programme is co-funded by AFD - Agence Française de Développement.

Today, we celebrate the artistry, creativity and cultural contribution of drag queens, drag kings and drag performers in all their diversity.
Drag is a form of performance and artistic expression. Through make-up, costume, movement, music, humour, storytelling and transformation, drag artists play with gender, question expectations and create something that can be joyful, political, intimate, provocative or all of these at once.
Drag is not the same as a person’s gender identity. A drag performer can have any gender identity or sexual orientation. What happens on stage is a form of creative expression, not an explanation of who someone is in their everyday life.
For many people, drag is entertainment. But for many LGBTIQ+ people, it is also much more than that.
A drag show can be the first place where someone sees gender expressed freely. It can be a space where people feel recognised, where they meet their community, where they laugh, feel safe and realise that there are more ways to exist than those they have been taught to accept.
Drag has long been part of LGBTIQ+ culture and history. Drag artists have contributed to visibility, community-building and resistance, often creating space for others even when they themselves faced discrimination, violence, censorship and exclusion.
Across the Western Balkans and Türkiye, q***r cultural spaces are still often fragile. They are created and sustained by artists, activists, organisers, venues and LGBTIQ+ organisations, frequently with limited resources and in social and political environments where q***r visibility and gender expression remain under pressure.
ERA’s member organisations are part of this wider work. They create safer spaces, support q***r culture, strengthen local communities and defend the right of LGBTIQ+ people to participate freely in cultural and public life.
That is why today is also about recognising the work, courage and vulnerability behind it.
Drag performers deserve to be recognised as artists and cultural workers. They deserve safe venues, sustainable support, protection from violence and harassment, and institutions that don't remain silent when their freedom of expression is attacked.

Today we mark International Non-Binary People’s Day.
This day is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate non-binary people, but also to ask what recognition actually means in practice.
Non-binary people do not need to become easier to understand in order to be respected. Societies, institutions and movements need to become better at recognising human diversity.

Across the Western Balkans and Türkiye, many systems still operate as if everyone fits neatly into two categories. Forms, documents, workplaces, schools, public services and institutions often leave little or no space for people whose gender does not fit within the binary.

That kind of invisibility is not abstract. It affects whether people feel safe to access services, report violence or discrimination, participate in public life, apply for jobs, move through institutions, or simply be addressed with dignity.
Supporting non-binary people starts with everyday respect.

Do not assume someone’s gender based on their name, appearance, voice, documents or gender expression. Use the name and pronouns a person shares with you. Do not put people in the position of having to explain, justify or prove who they are. If you make a mistake, apologise, correct yourself and commit to doing better.
But allyship cannot stop at individual behaviour.

Support also means making space for non-binary and TNBI people to speak for themselves, listening to their demands, sharing power, and ensuring that their realities are included in policies, services, advocacy, research and movement spaces.
At a time when anti-gender movements are increasingly targeting trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people, solidarity must be more than symbolic. It must be visible, vocal and collective.

Within less than 24 hours, drag artist Alexis Plastic and writer and activist Vladimir Arsenijević were violently attacked in Belgrade.
Alexis was attacked after an assailant noticed an item carrying LGBTIQ+ symbols. She sustained an eye injury and a puncture wound to her leg that required surgical treatment and stitches.
Vladimir Arsenijević was physically attacked while preparing the space for a commemoration dedicated to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide.

These attacks are not the same, and their individual circumstances must not be erased. But they are not unrelated.
Both rely on violence and intimidation to determine who is allowed to belong, who is allowed to speak, who is allowed to be visible and whose victims society is allowed to remember.

Across the Western Balkans, homophobia, transphobia, genocide denial and the glorification of war criminals are reinforced by the same politics of exclusion: the production of internal enemies, the policing of identity, the rewriting of history and the normalisation of violence against those who challenge dominant nationalist and patriarchal narratives.
LGBTIQ+ rights cannot be separated from democratic freedoms, historical truth and the protection of civic space. A society that accepts violence against one group does not become safer for others. It only expands the number of people who can be targeted without consequence.
ERA strongly condemns both attacks and stands in solidarity with Alexis Plastic and Vladimir Arsenijević.

We call on the Serbian authorities to act without delay: to identify and prosecute all those responsible, fully investigate the motives and circumstances of both attacks, and ensure the safety of those targeted.
Institutional responsibility cannot be reduced to statements of condemnation. It requires effective protection, swift and transparent investigations, and a clear response to the wider climate in which homophobia, transphobia, nationalist intimidation and hostility towards human rights defenders are increasingly normalised.

Freedom cannot be selective.
It is our collective refusal to allow violence to determine the boundaries of our freedoms.

Seven country-specific policy papers on the socio-economic inclusion of LGBTQI+ communities in the Western Balkans and Türkiye are now available on ERA’s website. 📄

The papers provide country-specific analysis, community-based insights and recommendations addressing barriers faced by LGBTQI+ people in employment, workplaces and broader socio-economic participation.

Together, they offer an important regional resource for understanding shared patterns across different national contexts, including gaps between legal protections and lived realities, limited trust in reporting mechanisms, weak implementation of existing safeguards, and the need for stronger institutional, employer and civil society engagement.

We invite institutions, employers, trade unions, chambers of commerce, civil society organisations, researchers, media, international partners and all stakeholders working on equality, labour rights and social inclusion to read, use and share these policy papers as tools for evidence-based dialogue, advocacy and policy development.
All seven policy papers are available through the link, in English and in the respective local languages: https://www.lgbti-era.org/resources

Creating safe, fair and inclusive workplaces requires coordinated action, stronger accountability and sustained cooperation across the region.

Developed by national project partners:
Albania: Open Mind Spectrum Albania (OMSA)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Tuzla Open Center (TOC)
Kosovo: Center for Social Group Development (CSGD)
Montenegro: Q***r Montenegro
North Macedonia: Coalition Margins
Serbia: Group Come Out
Türkiye: Kaos GL

While each policy paper focuses on a specific national context, together they form part of a wider regional evidence base. They will be further complemented by the upcoming regional research report, which will provide a more extensive analysis of socio-economic inclusion, workplace discrimination, institutional gaps and shared advocacy priorities across the Western Balkans and Türkiye.

Pride Day reminds us of the histories of resistance that shaped the global LGBTIQ+ movement. For ERA, it also speaks directly to the work that continues across the Western Balkans and Türkiye every day: strengthening the regional LGBTIQ+ movement, supporting member organisations, connecting communities across borders, and ensuring that local realities are visible in regional and international advocacy spaces.

As a regional umbrella association, we understand Pride not only as a moment of public visibility, but as part of a broader movement-building process. Pride is connected to access to rights, safety, legal protection, institutional accountability, public participation, community care, and the ability of LGBTIQ+ people to live freely and with dignity.

Visibility remains essential. It challenges silence, creates public recognition and opens space for social and political change. At the same time, Pride must also represent those who are not publicly visible: people who are not out, who do not feel safe to disclose their identity, or who continue to live in environments where visibility may lead to discrimination, exclusion, violence or loss of support.

This is why ERA’s work goes beyond symbolic dates. Through advocacy, research, capacity building, convening, from visibility to financial support, regional cooperation and solidarity, ERA continues to work with and for LGBTIQ+ individuals, organisations and communities across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Türkiye.

Pride is not only celebration.
It is movement infrastructure.
It is regional solidarity.
It is the work of making freedom, safety and dignity possible, for those who are visible, and for those who are not yet.

Yesterday, today and every day.

We were glad to join our partners, subgrantees, and organisations from across the region in Podgorica for the Grant Agreement Signing Ceremony and Capacity Building for Management and Advocacy, organised within the programme Together for LGBTQI+ Equality.

Danijel Kalezić, ERA’s Executive Co-Director, delivered opening remarks and joined Daliborka Uljarević, Executive Director of CCE/CGO, and Mladenka Tešić, Programme Manager at the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, at the official grant agreement signing ceremony.

The project partners also held a coordination meeting to review implementation and discuss next steps, with ERA represented by Danijel Kalezić and Project Coordinator Elena Petrovska.

During the training, representatives of supported organisations strengthened their skills in project management, reporting, EU visibility, procurement, VAT regulations, and advocacy, while also exchanging experiences and building regional connections.

Grant agreements were signed with 19 organisations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo, with total support of EUR 306,645.41.

The supported initiatives address the needs of LGBTIQ+ communities through legal support, visibility, youth work, research, advocacy, and public policy development.

As a project partner, ERA is proud to contribute to strengthening locally driven initiatives, regional cooperation, and the long-term sustainability of the LGBTIQ+ movement.

The programme “Together for LGBTQI+ Equality” is implemented by CGO - CCE in partnership with LGBTI Equal Rights Association, Q***R MONTENEGRO, Скопски Квир Центар, Tuzlanski Otvoreni Centar | TOC, Open Mind Spectrum Albania, and CSGD Kosovo. It is funded by the European Union Evropska kuća and co-funded by Ministarstvo regionalno-investicionog razvoja i saradnje sa NVO.

During the Council of Europe’s No Hate Speech Week in Strasbourg, Buğu Sıla Evren, ERA’s Project and Research Coordinator, followed discussions on some of the most urgent questions around hate speech today.

The programme examined the root causes of racism and intolerance, gender-based and anti-LGBTI hate, the role of equality bodies and reporting mechanisms, as well as the opportunities and risks of using artificial intelligence to address harmful online content.

How can we respond more effectively to hate speech and hate-motivated violence targeting communities already exposed to discrimination, including LGBTIQ+ people and women? How do we keep pace with rapidly changing digital spaces and harmful narratives that are constantly reproduced and adapted?

These questions are especially important where institutions remain weak, laws are inconsistently implemented, and people affected by hate often do not trust reporting mechanisms or expect an effective response.

Hate speech has a profound impact on the dignity and human rights of individuals and communities. It weakens trust, limits participation and undermines democratic resilience. It also shapes public opinion, normalises prejudice and influences how societies understand and respond to marginalised groups.

Countering hate speech cannot rely only on removing content or sanctioning individual cases. It requires prevention, education, long-term monitoring, stronger institutions, meaningful implementation of laws, and a deeper understanding of the conditions that allow hate to spread.

At ERA, we are committed to better understanding its trends, root causes and evolving forms, and to identifying more effective, evidence-based and rights-based ways to prevent and address it.

During the Networking Fair, Sıla also presented ERA’s ongoing monitoring of online hate speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

We are glad to have been present, to learn from different perspectives, and to bring this knowledge back into our regional work.