"My life is filled with a daily large amount of hate speech directed directly at me, not only non-binary people. In my name, on my platforms or live," said Valerian Savić, a non-binary person, for "Vreme".
He continues: "Every day I hear 'Satan', the worst ugly words." They spit on me by the way. I say that I somehow became a window display of the Pride Info Center, because when people pass by their window, they say all kinds of things, they spit on the window, and that somehow became me."
This year's Eurovision was won by a non-binary person for the first time. What does non-binary actually mean?
Savić explains that non-binary is one of the terms within identity and represents people who do not feel like men or women in terms of gender.
He goes on to say that if it is a question of people who have not publicly said that they are non-binary, then those people live much more peacefully.
"If they adjust their life to present themselves through one gender, even though non-binary and non-binary living are the most normal. However, if people allow themselves to have that personal expression and deviate from that aesthetic binary category of woman or man, life is full of stress, violence and discrimination. Especially non-binary people who have the same level of visibility as I do," says our interlocutor.
Attacks and hatred
Savić also talks about the attack on him that happened over the weekend. There were two of them.
"I was at a party on Friday in KC Grad with my friends from Italy, Germany and Russia," Savić begins the story.
He explains that he hangs out with queer people, foreigners, and that women are always the ones who stand up for them, who react to violence.
He goes on to say that while he was leaning against the facade of KC Grad, something constantly fell on his head. At first he thought they were parts of the facade, but then she saw that there were "children between six and 10 years old" throwing stones at him and competing to be the first to hit her in the head.
"Then I met them again at Kalemegdan and that's when they attacked us." They came from all sides and tried to rob us, to intimidate us, then they begged us and asked us for sexual favors. We had to move away from them. I stood up to them and said that they can't behave like that, and the smallest of them took a huge stone, the size of a small dog, and started shooting at us, to which I reacted," says Savić.
"The system is not on our side"
When asked if he called the police, Savić says that he didn't, but that he called the people from Pride, but that they didn't have a solution either, so she had to find a solution herself.
"I waited on the Kalemegdan terrace for it all to pass and went home safely with my friend without calling the police because we also had that case of police brutality against members of the LGBT community, and I just somehow don't trust the police." "I believe that they are there for the government, the rich and that they don't care about the people," explains Savić.
He also says that in major cases of violence, the system does not take their side, the cases become outdated or are not adequately sanctioned.
The fight against homophobia
Tomorrow is the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and the message sent by Valerian Savić is that we must have zero tolerance for violence because it calls for even more violence from all sides.
Finally, he says that we must think about how to cultivate the values of peace, understanding, love and support because this is something that "can heal any society."
