Croatia's Adriatic ast gets s first openly gay bar | Rters

Contents:

• THE BALKAN HISTORY SI MILWKEE'S ONLY GAY SPORTS BAR
• CROATIA'S ADRIATIC AST GETS S FIRST OPENLY GAY BAR
• GAY BELGRA
• GAY LIFE KOSOVO

THE BALKAN HISTORY SI MILWKEE'S ONLY GAY SPORTS BAR

Runng a gay bar is a tough bs. Whether that's matag a base of "regulars" or offerg unique specials, each of the lastg tablishments have rved out their own niche to keep ctomers g week on Urban Spelunkg, we vis Woody's on 2nd and 's the cy's only gay "sports bar" and, as you might expect, has a rich history totally unrelated to s current ncept.

DUBROVNIK, Croatia, June 10 (Rters) - Croatia's Adriatic ast, long a mag for ternatnal tourists, has belatedly acquired s first openly gay bar, though many ctomers are straight people who jt enjoy s relaxed vibe the picturque settg of Dubrovnik's Old Town. Loted amid the bbled streets and historic buildgs of the medieval port cy, "Milk" opened s doors last month and lol media say is the first dited gay bar on the Croatian ast, though there are other "gay-iendly" venu.

CROATIA'S ADRIATIC AST GETS S FIRST OPENLY GAY BAR

"This is the only official gay bar on (Croatia's) Adriatic ast, which is extraordary bee Croatia is a major European tourist statn, " said Igor Mlaric, 27, a lol journalist. "No matter how nservative and tradnal we are here, all kds of people e to Dubrovnik and there has always been gay tourism, even if there were no venu terg specifilly for them, " said Mlaric, who is gay.

GAY BELGRA

"Balkan untri rema mostly rather nservative on social issu and homophobia and discrimatn agast sexual mori are mon, often fueled by relig lears and right-wg polil parti. Croatia legalised gay sex more than 40 years ago, when was still part of Yugoslavia, but spe the impact of mass tourism recent s, attus towards homosexualy have not changed markedly the stnchly Roman Catholic Ivic, the bar's -owner, said she had sought to fill a gap Dubrovnik's tourism market.

To appreciate the impact, pare that ary and polil upheaval wh the ments om a gay male partner livg Europe: “My partner life is om Kosovo, and we know what gay life is all about Kosovo. Fay ti mean a lot to anybody there, but if you tell your fay that you are gay n easily mean, that you will loose all your fay and iends.

GAY LIFE KOSOVO

There is no other way than hidg and ceptn to live Kosovo for somebody who is gay. To add more to this dntg scene, nsir that the draft nstutn of of Kosovo was unr attack om Roman Catholic polil anizatns who fought agast any effort to protect gay people om discrimatn. Although Kosovo has among Europe’s most progrsive anti-discrimatn laws public attus ntue to be very homophobic and is unclear and uncerta to what extent the anti-discrimatn law is applied.

In 2007, a gay man om Kosovo was granted polil asylum the Uned Stat after prentg evince of repeated beatgs and harassment. Gay Scene. Inter rearch reveals (as of March 2012) there is no gay rights based anizatn workg directly and properly gay rights.

Other referrals scribe gay life Kosovo as beg “very unrground”. Prista or other Kosovan ci have no gay clubs, and there have so far been no gay pri paras. In 2011 there was some effort to open the first gay bar the center of Prista soon closed soon due to media exposure and harmful ments om people.