This year's Zagreb Pride parade will be held on September 19 and not in June as usual, the organisers of the LGBTIQ rights march announced on Saturday.

“The nineteenth Pride parade of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual and queer persons, our families and friends, which should have taken place today, will march through Zagreb on September 19,” Zagreb Pride said in a statement.

Instead of a parade, LGBTIQ activists on Saturday symbolically “occupied” the squares on the usual route of the parade.

“We want to show that we exist and that we are part of this society, that we share its fears and uncertainties as other citizens, that we won our right to public assembly, to our families, to our life partnerships, and made it possible for violence in same-sex unions to be recognised and qualified,” the statement said.

The organisers would not agree to the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic and rather delayed the event until September to “celebrate their difference and freedom, the autonomy of their bodies, their identity and love.”