The pink street sign with the inscription “Merlinka’s Street” appeared on the corner of Gavrila Principa and Zagrebacka streets.

The pink street sign, with the inscription “Merlinka’s Street” – very different from the blue ones that Belgraders are familiar with – appeared on the corner of Gavrila Principa and Zagrebacka streets on July 23.

Unknown Belgraders put up the pink plaque near the Economic Faculty, where Miladinovic, aka Merlinka, plied her trade as a sex worker for more than a decade.

Merlinka was one of the first transvestites Belgrade ever saw and definitely one of the most popular. She appeared in several movies and had a main role in Zelimir Zilnik’s 1995 movie, Marble Ass.

In 2001, she published an autobiography, entitled Tereza’s Son. Merlinka was brutally murdered in March 2003 at the age of 43. Her body was found a month later. The only person arrested as a suspect, believed to be an ex-lover, was later freed of charges.

In 2009, Belgrade’s first queer film festival was named Merlinka after her. Honouring the tenth anniversary of Miladinovic’s death, this year’s festival, in March, saw a special programme dedicated to Merlinka.

“We talked about erecting a plaque to Merlinka and I want to thank that unknown hero who actually set it up now,” Predrag Azdejkovic, director of the festival and the editor of LGBT web portal GayEcho, told BIRN. “It is a beautiful way to mark the tenth anniversary of her death.”