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Serbian Medical Society Still Has no Position on Same-Sex Orientation

Ivana Stevanovic

17 May 2006

On the occasion of May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Labris, organization for lesbian human rights, invited once again the Serbian Medical Society to publicly confirm that homosexuality is not a disease.

The World Health Organization officially deleted homosexuality from the list of mental diseases on May 17, 1990, reminds Labris.

"We expect from the Serbian Medical Society and the Ministry of Health to respond positively to his call and thus contribute, like their colleagues in the other countries in the region did, to decrease in the levels of homophobia", say Labris representatives.

Last year's call to the SMS resulted in a rather vague public release, in which the SMS Ethics Committee didn't take a clear position on homosexuality. The release held it that "�there are many controverses surrounding homosexuality both in medical science and in the society", adds that "�the existence of any disease should not have impact, in any way or manner, on the realization of rights or discrimination", and announced an experts' debate on this topic.

The said debate was never organized, and Labris complained, in the meantime, to the WHO.

"The homophobia is one of the most common prejudices in our society. According to our research, two thirds of persons we polled has been subjected to violence because of their sexual preferences, and over 90% of them knows of cases of violence provoked by the fact that the victim had sexual preferences other than heterosexual", reports Labris.