Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelić with enthusiastic Franciscan monksToday Croat voters overwhelmingly-- and true to form-- chose to institutionalize the idea that their own LGBT community is less equal than other Croats. With four-fifths of the votes counted, a solid majority appears to have backed the move to amend the Constitution so that gays and lesbians can never get married. I drove through Croatia in 1969. The scenery was beautiful and I remember thinking how awesome Dubrovnik looked, even though it was kind of like Disneyland, the original city having been destroyed in 1296 (fire) and again in 1667 (earthquake), and rebuilt. Croatian history is complicated and the country has been ruled by every country in the neighborhood at one time or another. During the 1940's Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia and, under the guidance of the fascist Ustashi Party and it's chief, Ante Pavelić, became an ally of the Nazis. They were brutal to non-Croat minorities and established extermination camps for Jews, gypsies, and Serbs. There was something creepy about the country for me and I've never wanted to go back, despite the lovely scenery and rebuilt castles.Recently, Croatian expatriates living in France were so outraged that Bob Dylan referred to the country's love affair with fascism that they're suing him. Croats don't like people thinking of them as fascists, history notwithstanding. It started with Dylan being awarded the French Legion of Honor last month. It is France's highest cultural award and Dylan had been blocked from receiving it in the past because he opposed the U.S. War Against Vietnam and because he is rumored to have smoked marijuana. The French version of Rolling Stone interviewed him about the honor.
When asked about parallels he sees between Civil War-era America and today, Dylan told the magazine:"Mmm, I don't know how to put it. It's like . . . the United States burned and destroyed itself for the sake of slavery. The USA wouldn't give it up. It had to be grinded out. The whole system had to be ripped out with force. A lot of killing. What, like, 500,000 people? A lot of destruction to end slavery. And that's what it really was all about.This country is just too fucked-up about color. It's a distraction. People at each other's throats just because they are of a different color. It's the height of insanity, and it will hold any nation back-- or any neighborhood back. Or any anything back. Blacks know that some whites didn't want to give up slavery-- that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can't pretend they don't know that. If you got a slave master or Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood."It's those last few words that caused the stir. Harking back to centuries-old religious conflict between the majority Roman Catholic Croats and the Christian Orthodox Serbs as well as further rivalry that sprang up during World War II, Dylan referenced the bad relations that exist between the two groups. Amid lingering memories of the Croatian War of Independence that lasted from 1991 to 1995, the France-based Croatian community group in question has brought a lawsuit after finding Dylan's comments unsettling.
Oddly enough, even as Croats are once again portraying themselves as more "western" and "progressive" than the "backward" Serbs, and are just horrified that Dylan would remind anyone of their fascist natures, the country was sponsoring a referendum on proposals to ban marriage equality for LGBT citizens. Croatia was accepted into the European Union this past summer but now the powerful-- and very reactionary-- Catholic Church there is demanding that the constitution be rewritten to define marriage as between a man and a woman only. 104 members of Croatia's 151 seat parliament support the position and opinion polls were overwhelmingly in favor of the fascist position, exactly what anyone who has ever looked into Croatian history would expect. The government, sensitive to European sentiment, is embarrassed and urged people to vote NO.
Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic argued that the referendum threatened people's right to happiness and choice. But leaders of the opposition HDZ party are behind the referendum.Gay rights protesters, under a heavy police presence, marched for an hour through the city and unfurled a giant rainbow flag outside parliament."We urge voters... to protect minority rights so that no-one in Croatia becomes a second-class citizen," activist Sanja Juras told a crowd in Zagreb on Saturday.The plan for a referendum was allowed parliamentary scrutiny after a Catholic group called "In the Name of the Family" gathered enough signatures to pass the required threshold of support."Marriage is the only union enabling procreation. This is the key difference between a marriage... and other unions," said Croatia's Cardinal Josip Bozanic in a letter read out in churches.Correspondents say attitudes towards gay rights in Croatia-- which joined the European Union in July-- are slowly changing.In Zagreb's first gay pride parade in 2002, dozens of participants were beaten up by extremists.Parades are now held regularly although under heavy security.