Ukraine parliament votes to outlaw "promotion of homosexuality"

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday took a first step to making the promotion of homosexuality a criminal offence punishable by prison despite appeals from local and foreign human rights groups who said the move was discriminatory.

The draft law, which passed the first of two readings, does not clearly define what it means by the "promotion of homosexuality" but says it is a threat to national security.

"Certain media outlets, going against the interests of society and the state, are promoting a tolerant attitude towards things like sexual relations between people of the same sex," the law's authors said in an accompanying note. "The spread of homosexuality constitutes a threat to national security as it leads to an HIV/AIDS epidemic and also destroys the institute of family and can trigger a demographic crisis."

If the law is enacted - something that would also require President Viktor Yanukovich to sign off on it - Ukraine's criminal code would be amended to punish anyone convicted of importing, producing or spreading "works that promote homosexuality" with jail terms of up to five years.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-ukraine-gay-idUSBRE8910SW20121002

[TrogL]

1. Which century would they like to be a member of? Obviously the 21st and 20th are right out.

[alp227]

30. Well, Ukraine should also expect a surge of asylum applications from American extremist Christians.

There must be plenty of "jobs Ukrainians won't do". I'm sure most homophobic freeper types in our nation will enjoy sacrificing their own economic freedoms for their own twisted worldviews. But hey, don't working-class evangelical Christians in the country already do that all the time by voting?

[SoapBox]

2. It's true!

The Time Tunnel is actually in Ukraine...or was it the Way Back Machine?

Anyway, the batshit crazy hater types have no one else to hate but homosexuals. The Reds are no longer under the beds, no Nazis, and on and on. Then, in coordination with religion, they found a perfect target to attack. Disgusting.

[okasha]

10. Maybe you should read the article.

Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union, in which homosexuality was outlawed, as was most religious expression, until 1991. The homophobic culture was very much a part of Soviet policy, as was holding the USSR's Jewish population to ransom and tight restriction of the Orthodox Church.

You can't hang this one on religion. Quite the contrary.

[riderinthestorm]

14. What??! The Orthodox church has been against homosexuality since well, forever!

Being against homosexuality in Russia and its surrounding satellite countries including the Ukraine has a long history going back centuries. I believe the only time its been legal was under Lenin for a short time! IIRC, Stalin outlawed it again because the church was putting enormous pressure on him and he was trying to make peace.

[okasha]

19. As may be.

The Church putting pressure on Stalin? You've kind of got that backwards, you know.

[riderinthestorm]

23. Russian history major here....

well actually a double major but I thought I remembered this since it was so unusual.

"In 1933, Article 121 was added to the criminal code, for the entire Soviet Union, that expressly prohibited male homosexuality, with up to five years of hard labor in prison. The precise reason for the new law is still in some dispute.

Some historians have suggested that Joseph Stalin's enactment of the anti-gay law was, like his prohibition on abortion, an attempt to increase the Russian birthrate and build a better relationship with the socially conservative Eastern Orthodox Church."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history_in_Russia

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Religion is at the heart of it

One of the legislation's incubators is the Christian Hope evangelical church in Kiev. Located in a nondescript five-story structure outside the city centre, Christian Hope provides a wide array of educational and charity services, and has established a network of some 150 churches throughout Ukraine. It has also helped collect thousands of signatures in support of three anti-gay bills put forward in parliament this year.

After a rousing service in the church's warehouse-like auditorium focusing on the agonies of sin and bliss of salvation, I meet the chief pastor, Valery Reshetinsky. For him, the fight against homosexuality is a matter of "national security" upon which the survival of the nation depends.
...
The pastor goes on to accuse a worldwide conspiracy of Masons, New-Agers, postmodernists and financiers of various nationalities, of imposing ideas that are not "characteristic for Ukraine" on the nation's children.
...
And a few weeks ago, the National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality said it would examine complaints from a Christian group about SpongeBob SquarePants and some Disney films.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19881905

A Kiev protest against homosexuality by the Embassy of God church

[Shuhered]

3. Enlighten yourselves .

President Yanukovich. I am a homosexual male here in Iowa. I am a physician. I love what I do. I am "out" to my entire clientele and do my job-as a doctor-- to my ability's best. MY job accords me little time to delve into lobbying against the utter waste of resources spent punishing people for being the way they were born and created by God. I can only hope that you are as busy. Homosexuality is nature's (and God's) gift to mankind to ensure that this world progresses into the beautiful planet that it can and should become. I suggest that you go on National Television, give the legislation a cursory look, cough once, and then look into the camera and state like a man, " Let's Move Our Nation Forward People," and the topic should fade away. If it does not, you simply look into the camera and borrow from us Americans and say, " Seriously?!?!?! Seriously...." And walk off.

[SoapBox]

4. Welcome to DU and....

[msongs]

5. slavic nations/cultures are virulently anti gay. remember what they did to the jews nt

[mitchtv]

11. I blame the church, is it the Russian Orthodox?

the more vehement of the Xian sects ,real haters, that lot. Wouldn't recognize Jesus if he bit them

[okasha]

20. Of course you do.

It would be impossible for Soviet anti-gay policy to have any continuing influence, wouldn't it.

[mitchtv]

21. no, not impossible

the ground was fertile, the hate already spread, just a little vilification from the church, and bingo

[BigDemVoter]

6. Ukraine is a shit hole anyway

A bunch of anti-semitic, racist, homophobic assholes. . . . They enthusiastically enforced Hitler's policies during WWII & never took responsibility for it or apologized--just whined that they "were forced." Yeah, right.

[Shitty Mitty]

18. And shit like this will ensure they stay a shit hole

nt

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Shocker!

Actually, what will be shocking is if some of the other former Soviet countries don't do this as well. There is another one, and I can't remember which one, that is looking to push something similar though. Belarus?

[hifiguy]

8. What in the blue hell is "promoting homosexuality"?

Asshats.

[bemildred]

9. That's what I was wondering. Do they have street vendors or something?

Asshats indeed.

[mitchtv]

12. a Cher concert?

lady Gaga?

[Shitty Mitty]

17. It's anything the state says it is

You can be arrested for simply saying "being gay is normal" in some places in the world.

[JVS]

22. Just a guess here, but I think this is targeted at Pride Parades

I recall reading about Moscow banning them recently and the Ukrainian, although a different country, often moves in the same stream of current events.

[Monk06]

29. 'Promoting homosexuality' is the Republican dog whistle term for Gay Rights. I smell the influence

of American RW religionists in the Ukraine. Wouldn't be surprised if Tony Perkins and Pat Robinson have paid visits to promote 'family values' in the Ukraine as well as all the other Baltic states.

As an aside Estonia, Romania and Latvia are virulently anti semitic and anti gay. They were also allies of the Nazis for part of WWII and had their own native versions of the Waffen SS. Most of the Jews murdered in these countries were murdered by native SS militias, more than glad to do the Nazis dirty work for them. The same can be said for England, France, Belgium, Holland, Greece and Italy during and after WWII. No European is innocent when it comes to the Jews.

On a personal note, I used to know a young 30 something Polish couple in the early nineties. In most respects they were very liberal, more liberal than myself in fact, except when it came to the Jews. They were born in the 1960s and yet they were holocaust deniers !!!

I hold out little hope for liberal democracy in the former Warsaw Pact counties.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. No Eurovision for YOU!

[fightthegoodfightnow]

15. ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HETEROSEXUALS FLAUNTING

.....their sexuality.

What are they scared of? They might like it!!!!!

[Shitty Mitty]

16. Eastern Europe: Fighting their way back to the 1950s, one nation at a time

nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. "propaganda" meaning "Brokeback Mountain", and maybe "Spongebob Squarepants"

These homophobes are complete nuts:

Kukharchuk, however, has also written about what he calls the "homo-dictatorship" which he claims dominates Western society and persecutes religious, anti-gay proponents like himself. He strives to counter "aggressive" gay propaganda, he says - in other words, public discourse that implies that homosexuality "is normal, is good, is part of democracy".

If passed, the bill would prevent anyone sending out a message that there is nothing wrong with being gay - whether in a newspaper editorial, a public speech or parade. This bill's authors have cited films like Brokeback Mountain as an example.

Another film, Bruno, featuring Sacha Baron Cohen in the role of a gay Austrian fashion designer, was censored in Ukraine anyway. And a few weeks ago, the National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality said it would examine complaints from a Christian group about SpongeBob SquarePants and some Disney films.

The new bill could even be so interpreted as to outlaw any public display of single-sex affection, such as kissing and hand-holding, Kukharchuk says. "But it would be up to a court of law to decide if this was propaganda or not."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19881905