Representatives in the Ukrainian parliament have introduced a gay-propaganda ban similar to the one already on the books in Saint Petersburg.
If the legislation passes, “TV shows and movies sympathetically portraying homosexuals, such as Brokeback Mountain will be banned. So will gay pride parades,” reports the AP.
The bill, supported by President Viktor Yanukovych’s representative in parliament, would actually penalize the spread of pro-homosexual “propaganda” with fines and up to five years in prison. But even before the ban has been voted on, homophobic tensions are bubbling over: Two gay-rights activists have been assaulted in the past few months, and the first Pride parade in the Ukraine was canceled in May after threats of violence from anti-gay hooligans.
“Our goal is the preservation of the moral, spiritual and physical health of the nation,” said Pavlo Ungurian, one of the bill’s sponsors. “We must stop the propaganda, the positive description and the publicity … of this abnormal lifestyle.”
The United Nations Development Program called the ban is “state-supported discrimination” against the LGBT community and claimed it could exacerbate the spread of AIDS in the region. Hopefully the European Union will take a similarly hard line as Ukraine works to join its ranks.
desdemona
Is it really an ‘abnormal lifestyle’ when gay people have existed throughout history and exist today all over the world, in loving and committed relationships? How is it abnormal, when science shows sexual orientation to be majorly innate? What IS abnormal is trying to prevent people from being who they really are. Doesn’t the government have anything more productive to do? How are people still so ignorant today? The preservation of the moral, spiritual and physical health of the nation will not be achieved by pretending gay people don’t exist- it will in fact, result in just the opposite.
freddie
Ukraine is not a member of the EU, so the EU has no authority over it. However, both Russia and Ukraine are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights, so hopefully the European courts will crack down on this, though they have no power to enforce their rulings.
dina
Is anyone surprised???
The eastern european countries are as backward as the third world both socially and sometimes economically
Oh well
Dina, you are unfairly insulting the Third World, given that a number of so-called Third World countries (especially in Latin America, as well as South Africa) now have better legal protections for gay right than the U.S. does, never mind the Ukraine.
Kurt
Ukrainian guys are hot.
KARUADAM
Hello hot men in the Ukrain, we will support you and help with everything we can. If someone say bad thing about!? tell them to get fucked..
Triple S
The UN is useless. These laws will pass without any substantial resistance, and will be implemented without question, and those who defy it (gays simply existing basically defies it) will be punished like they are sub-human.
I’m not saying we need a world police, but SOMETHING needs to be done here. Otherwise we simply allow it. And allowing abuse is as good as condoning it.
Kurt
I love their golden domes.
B
Re No 8: “I love their golden domes.”
If you take the crosses off the tops, they look like butt plugs…. just saying.