"The Truth About Who We Are..."

Predrag, Editor and Chief, Belgrade, Serbia by thegaymenproject

photos by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Predrag, in his own words: "I have, maybe a conservative definition of being gay - having emotional and sexual feelings towards men.

But queer is something totally different. Queer would be everything that is violating the heteronormative standards and gender roles, from sexual behavior, clothing, acting…

My father died when I was young (14), and after a while the war started, and we lost the head of the family and food provider. It was on to me to be the next head of the family, without any money. It was a very tough times. But that made me the man I'm today, responsible, independent and a fighter.

I'm a editor of the only gay magazine in the region, "Optimist", director and selector of a multinational queer film festival "Merlinka", I'm in a serious relationship for six years, I think I can be happy with that.

I never came out in that standard way. I never told people, I'm gay. I only started acting as a gay person. I started talking about boys that I liked with my girlfriends, and after a while everybody knew. In that time we didn't use the word gay, and I wouldn't use a word like fag to describe myself. That was in high school and I didn't have any problems, because I was best friends with popular girls, and they protected me.

Many would say that the gay community in Serbia is non existent, but that's not true. We have a small gay community, but mainly focused on partying and having sex, of course discrete sex. Many ignore activist events and because of that our community is weak. We need more out, brave people.

(Advice I'd give my younger self) Have more sex, don't be a prude, be a slut!"