Dejan Nebrigić
A founder of Serbia’s first gay and lesbian organisation, he brought the country’s first case of homophobic discrimination to court – and was murdered on his 29th birthday.
Dejan Nebrigić grew up in Pančevo near Belgrade. In 1990, together with the feminist Lepa Mlađenović and others, he founded Arkadija, the first organisation for gay and lesbian rights in Serbia. Yugoslavia was falling apart, and nationalism under Slobodan Milošević dominated public life.
Nebrigić campaigned not only for queer rights but also against the war. He co-edited the anti-war magazine “Pacifik”, was active in the Centre for Antiwar Action and with Women in Black. When he was to be drafted into the army, he told the recruiting board he was gay; he was the first anti-war activist to speak publicly about his sexuality in the media. He also wrote essays, a travelogue and a “Labyrinth Dictionary”. In 1998 and 1999 he led the Campaign Against Homophobia, documenting hate speech in the media and politics.
In 1999 he sued the father of his former boyfriend, who had repeatedly threatened him. It was the first trial for homophobic discrimination in Serbia. The police did not help him but beat and insulted him; a court-appointed lawyer refused to take the case. The hearing was postponed.
On 29 December 1999, his 29th birthday, Nebrigić was found strangled in his flat in Pančevo. The perpetrator was his former boyfriend. The investigating judge used the case to portray the gay rights movement as an anti-state sect. In 2000 Nebrigić was posthumously awarded the Felipa de Souza Award for his human rights work.