July 17, 2022 - As has become the norm every year, the City of Split celebrated pride around its old town. The 11th Split Pride parade brought together dozens of people of all ages to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.

As is customary year after year, the city of Split celebrated Pride and Total Croatia News was there to record the festivities. Yesterday the streets of Split were filled with music and smiles, with dozens of people marching together with flags and banners, showing their unconditional support for the LGBTQ+ community. The high temperatures were not an obstacle, and the general feeling was one of genuine joy.

Photo: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich

It should be noted that the eleventh Split Pride, held yesterday, is also a peaceful march where attendees take the opportunity to protest discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, manifested in various ways, such as the lack of rights, verbal and physical aggression, the invisibility of trans people, among many other forms of discrimination. Split Pride organizers decided yesterday's event revolves around one essential question: ''do we have rights?''

The recently re-elected mayor of Split, Ivica Puljak, was present at the 11th Split Pride together with his wife, MP Marijana Puljak. (Photo: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich)

''Namely, in the past twenty years of LGBTIQ+ activism in Croatia (ten in Split), much has been said and discussed about the rights of LGBTIQ+ people. Some think that we have too many, some think that we have too few, as if it is about some special rights. And we actually just want to have the same rights as all other citizens of this country. We are not asking for special rights, but equal rights. Is that really too much?'', said the organizers.

''I pay the same taxes, but I don't have the same rights''. (Photo: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich)

''We will list only some examples of discrimination that really sting our eyes. For example: We are left out of important national and local strategic documents, which marginalizes us and makes us invisible, health care for trans people in the Republic of Croatia is not regulated, we do not have access to medically assisted fertilization, we cannot donate blood, the Constitution prohibits us from the right to marry, and so on''.

Photo: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich

Around 16:30 pm, as previously announced on social media, people began to gather in Đarđin, in Strossmayer Park by the Golden Gate of Diocletian's Palace. People of all ages, and even with pets, came to the park and were met by friends and other familiar faces. A large police force was present at the beginning, around the park, to make sure that those who entered it were precisely to join the celebrations and protests.

Many parents brought their children to the 11th Split Pride. (Photo: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich)

The initial environment featured music and merchandising stands. After 5:30 pm, with a large number of people already gathered, a spectacular dance number was performed, in which some attendees participated. Once finished, percussion instruments were heard and the organizers, with a long banner in their hands, marked the beginning of the march. The route of the march began in the Strossmayer park, where the protesters would walk the entire Tomislava street, until they reached the Marmontova, where they would turn left to go to the Riva, and from there they would take the Hrvojeva, to finally return to the Strossmayer park.

Pets were also present at the 11th Split Pride parade yesterday. (Photo: Jose Alfonso Cussianovich)

In the middle of the tourist season, visitors in the city of Split witnessed the parade, and in Tomislava, Marmontova, Riva, and Hrvojeva streets they stood on the sides, taking photos and recording videos, smiling, with their cameras. In Tomislava street, I heard a child ask his father: ''what is happening?'', to which he replied: ''they are marching for their rights''.

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July 15, 2021 - The Split Pride 2021 event will be held this Saturday with a procession and entertainment that lasts until the late evening hours. 

The 10th Split Pride will take place on Saturday, July 17. The gathering begins at 5 pm at Bedem Cornaro behind the Gallery of Fine Arts, and the procession starts at 6 pm. The expected return to Bedem is at 7 pm, followed by an entertainment program until 11 pm. 

"We tried to make the procession as beautiful and colorful as possible and we chose excellent performers. But we must not forget that Pride is not just colorful and fun, Pride is a protest. For the tenth time so far, the Split LGBTIQ + community and supporters are taking to the streets in an organized manner, protesting against the prejudices they are surrounded by, raising the awareness of their fellow citizens about their existence, and celebrating all their differences and identities. The big thing for Split Pride is the mayor's announcement that he will join us in the procession. We are happy to have a man at the head of the city who is trying to understand our problems," said Split Pride for Dalmatinski Portal. 

This year, the Pride organization was a bit more demanding than before because they had to harmonize it with the currently valid measures of the Civil Protection Headquarters.

"We invite other fellow citizens to join us, but before that, we must mention a few important things. Unfortunately, we are still living in a pandemic. Due to the currently valid measures, we will only allow people with Covid certificates - people with confirmation that they have recovered from Covid, people with evidence of vaccination, and people with a negative Covid test. We don’t want to risk becoming the focus of a pandemic. We are aware that for this reason there will be fewer people gathered and we are sorry for that.

Those who wish can join the parade when it leaves. No one can forbid you to walk in public areas, but please adhere to the measures and keep your distance. Take care of your safety and the safety of your family members," sid the organizers of the pride parade.

For more on lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

June 15, 2019 - On Saturday, June 15, the 9th Split Pride parade was held. From Đardin, members of the LGBT community in Split and hundreds of their biggest supporters marched through the city. 

The organizer of Split Pride, Mirta Barić, said that Pride will continue to fight prejudice, anti-discrimination, and fear. Brtić also pointed out that they wanted to send a message to everyone that the LGBT community in this city exists, and it’s not going anywhere. 

Pride expected around 300 people on the route from Đardin to the Riva and back to Đardin. There were unofficial reports of more than 250 police officers in Split throughout the day.

You can see photos and videos of the event courtesy of Mirela Rus below. 

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

June the 11th, 2019 - As the ninth Split Pride is taking place this weekend, on June the 15th, this article will take a look into some of the activities the LGBT centre Split is doing as part of the preparations for Split Pride.

The Split Pride participants will gather in Đardin, the event will begin at 18:00, and the route is: Ulica kralja Tomislava, Marmontova, Kino Karaman., Zadarska, Pjaca, Riva, Hrvojeva and back to Đardin.

The participants also include drummers from Klapa Klapa and vouge dancers who will entertain the participants and spectators. The After party will take place in Đardin with DJ's, stands, a bar and performances until 22.00 and then the party moves to Kocka.

TCN had a chat with Mirta and Nikolina from Split's LGBT centre, and they gave us some additional information on preparation for Split Pride. They have a lot of activities to handle before each Pride takes place, and this year they have multiple volunteers for several events. They need to work on collecting donations and have volunteers who are helping with preparations for 2019's Split Pride, as well as DJ's, designers, and videographers.

This year, they engaged a sociologist who created a survey for the event, while Kocka and Kino klub Split are always there to borrow sound system equipment from. The Rišpet Association offers space for all of Split Pride's activities while the Domine Association is there to help with additional equipment and advice. The LGBT centre has support from several cafes and bars who are willing to host their events or at least have a donation box at the bar.

Nikolina said that they usually start with preparations at the very beginning of the year, and then regularly meet to make sure everything comes together and works. They usually have a budget of zero, but are armed with several enthusiastic volunteers.

To include the local community as much as possible, they create several events before Split Pride, like pub quizzes, day trips, workshops, exhibitions, and similar things. Split Pride itself doesn’t have a lot of participants, but most of the donations did come from the local community. Nikolina emphasised that one of the most significant issues for Split Pride is facing a lack of participants on the day of the event – for one reason only, typically, Split locals don’t take part in protests and similar demonstrations, and on top of that, Split's local LGBTIQ community often avoids coming to events like this, even though they’re obviously supportive.

She has estimated there are approximately 3000 non-heterosexual people in Split, while just a few participate in Split Pride. Most of them don’t come because they’re afraid of what other people will say about them in Split, despite the fact Split Pride takes place to protest against such prejudice.

Specific events the LGBT centre has organised this year have been several pub quizzes, an exhibition in the LGBT centre, movie nights, different workshops, and a barbeque night. These events helped inform the public about LGBT centre's activities, and also saw donation collections take place.

From the donation money, Split Pride pays for its promotional material, organisation, and so forth. One of the interesting events before Split Pride took place at the of May was called Kvi(r)z, which is a themed quiz related to general knowledge, as well as a music quiz but related to the LGBT community.

The idea came to Daniel and Zlatko as they were a team participating last year in Chillton's pub quizzes. The quiz participants could, from time to time, create their themed quiz and that’s how they created Kvi(r)z, and it was held in June 2018. Kvi(r)z was first quiz in Split and probably the first one in Croatia to have general knowledge questions but related to people connected with queer culture. This quiz covers general knowledge questions related to science, history, politics, culture, art, film, music, sport, comics and the questions themselves are specifically related to individuals who are or were part of LGBT community, or who were/are related to it.

The idea behind is to motivate the public to make an event for amateur pub quiz goers. Daniel and Zlatko took months to create all of the quiz's questions, but now they have enough information to host a few more quizzes. They’re planning to possibly have another quiz this autumn as everyone who participated in this quiz had a great time and learned something new.

The LGBT centre also has permanent psychological counselling for local LGBT youth, and one of the plans is to launch a radio show for the LGBTIQ community and renovate the space where they're currently based. As they say: Pride is a celebration of differences and protest against prejudice. Split Pride is, as the people of Split say “dišpet”.

For all additional information on the activities of the LGBT centre in Split, check out their Facebook page. 

Follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more. If it's just Split and central Dalmatia you're interested in, give Total Split a follow.

Pride participants will gather at Đardin at 17:00, with the procession beginning at 18:00.

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