Skopje Pride parade took place in capital of North Macedonia on June 21 under the slogan “We stand. We persist. Together!”, organized by the National Network Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
As previously announced, instead of a celebration of diversity format used during the previous five times, the sixth Skopje Pride took form of a protest march, without a stage and a party. The organizers declared resistance to the negation of the identity and the existance of the LGBT community.
The participants declared their positions before the protest through the Skopje Pride Manifesto, opposing “misogyny and hetero patriarchal demographic hysteria promoted by the highest echelons of government,” including bureaucratic “mishaps” like the two-year pause of the legal changes for recognition of gender. The manifesto expresses support for transgender people “who are targeted by orchestrated attack by the anti-gender associations which sow moral panic, fear and hate through anti-science and manipulated information.” Support is also expressed for the people of Palestine, as a reaction to refusal of the Government of North Macedonia to support recent UN resolution on Gaza.
The march started at 7pm from the “Woman Fighter” park in the center of Skopje, with speeches warning about the growing movement against democracy, human rights and gender equality, ending with the slogan “death to fascism, freedom to us, the people.”
“We remind that both in good and in bad times, togetherness is the strongest strategy against the bullying, extremist right, fascist coalitions. Togetherness is not a platitude, it’s sharing of resources, care, space and time. Moreover it is an active struggle to return the labor, knowledge, the body and time back from the claws of the power-holders – those who took everything from us, and returned nothing. We don’t want an assimilating inclusion to mold us into the norms of a patriarchal, colonial and ecocidal capitalism. It is presented as the only possible world, where care is turned into luxury, health is turned into privilege, and freedom is turned into a marketing strategy. We insist on refusing all those,” stated one of the speakers.
Afterwards, while carrying a big flag with the colors of the rainbow, the several hundred participants marched through the streets Dimitrie Čupovski, Sv. Kliment Ohridski, and Mitropolit Todosij Gologanov, stopping in front of the Ministry of Education and Science. They then went along Frenklin Ruzvelt and Ilinden boulevard, stoppin in front of the seat of the Government of Republic of North Macedonia also.
While walking the streets of Skopje, the participants chanted “we exist” and “we will persist!” They also chanted slogans “Death to Fascism!” and also “Justice for Kočani”, referring to impunity for tragedy of the Kočani nightclub fire.
Some participants also chanted slogans in support of Palestine, while about a dozen of them also waved Palestinian flags.
The presence of leftist activists was visible at the protest. They shouted slogans related to the socialist international tradition in different languages, or their Macedonian versions. One of them was “The people united will not be defeated”, a translation from Spanish of a Chilean revolutionary song (¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!).
In front of the Ministy of Eduction and Science, a mother of a transgender child held a short speech addressing the government minister, demanding the institutions not segregate and discriminate against the children with disabilities nor the children of different sexual orientations or gender identities.
“You cannot move aside the LGBTI kids into resource centers like you are trying to remove the kids with disabilities, and tolerate the bullying by other students and the teachers. The director of the high school attended by my transgender kid publicly gloated after inauguration of Trump transphobic policies, and my daughter criticized his statements. Instead of demanding responsibility from him, your policies, minister, enabled him to show dominance,” the mother said.
During the protest, the participants carried multiple signs with diverse messages like “Love is to beautiful to be hidden,” “Love is immortal, not immoral,” and “Let love live.”
Other messages addressed the issues of threat of violence, like “will the women survive here?” and the worsening social climate, demanding “Death to fascism, freedom the the people” or declaring “We are the new sun of freedom” (referring to a lyrics from the Macedonian national anthem “Today over Macedonia is born/the new sun of freedom”).
Some protest participants carried signs expressing support to Palestine, like “No pride in genocide, none of us are free until all of us are free,” “Silence = death,” and “Anti-capitalist parade against Christo-fascism.”
One sigh also expressed solidarity and support for the people of Serbia, with a sign “LGBTQ+ against lithium,” referring to the demands of the environmental protests against Serbian government approved lithium mining project.
The protest was part of a series of queer culture-related events taking place in June as a Pride Month, which included the festival Pride Weekend Skopje 2025 and the panel-discussion “Uncovering gander based disinformation narratives through queer literature.”
