News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.Ukraine’s Parliament: “Don’t Say Gay”
Jim Burroway
October 2nd, 2012
Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay Forum of Ukraine, was beaten after a scheduled gay-pride parade was cancelled in May, 2012. (Anatolii Stepanov, Reuters/Landov)
Ukraine’s parliament today approved a first reading of a bill which would impose prison sentences of up to five years for anyone who would dare to say anything good about gay people. The vote was 289 deputies voting for the bill, with nobody voting against and just one abstention. Another 60 deputies were absent during the vote.
The bill would prohibit “propaganda of homosexuality,” which it vaguely defines as positive public depiction of gay people. It is in many respects similar to legislation enacted in St. Petersburg, Russia and which may be considered by the Russia’s central government.
In May, Kiev authorities cancelled a Pride march at the last minute. A Pride organizer was then savagely beaten when he tried to meet with reporters shortly after the cancellation. Reporters merely looked on and snapped photos. That kind of propaganda would be permissible under the proposed legislation.
A second and final vote in Ukraine’s Parliament is tentatively scheduled for October 16.
Kiev Pride Canceled, Two Beaten
Jim Burroway
May 21st, 2012
From the Daily Beast:
Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay Forum of Ukraine, is beaten as he met with members of the media to inform them that a scheduled gay-pride parade was cancelled. (Anatolii Stepanov, Reuters/Landov)
Amnesty International has the details:
Police advised pride organizers to abandon the march just 30 minutes before it was due to start. They claimed 500 ultra-right football hooligans were en route to the rally point with the intention of preventing the march from going ahead.
Two activists were beaten up and tear gassed by a dozen youths in central Kyiv after those already gathered for the march were evacuated with police escort.
Amnesty International also reports that Ukraine’s parliament is considering a bill similar to one passed recently in St. Petersburg, Russia, which would ban the publication, broadcast, or distribution of messages deemed to “promote homosexuality.”
Guess Who Else Isn’t On Board With the U.N. Resolution to Decriminalize Homosexuality
Jim Burroway
December 5th, 2008
Mark, at Slapped Upside the Head, has a good take on yesterday’s news that the Vatican is opposing a U.N. resolution calling on member states to rescind laws outlawing homosexuality — which in some countries includes the death penalty. We discussed the Vatican’s intrinsically disordered logic here. Mark has his own take here.
There are a lot of countries which have already signed on to the declaration, including: Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Those last three are rather surprising. Also surprising co-sponsors are three African countries: Gabon, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. That’s quite an impressive list.
So, who’s missing? Well, let’s see. Oh look: the United States and Australia.
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Exodus In Ukraine
Jim Burroway
June 17th, 2008
Anti-gay activists are truly going global. Yesterday, we reported on Paul Cameron in Moscow. Today, it’s Exodus in Ukraine.
On June 5th and 6th, Don Schmierer conducted a seminar in Donetsk, Ukraine, on the campus of Donetsk Christian University. (Donetsk is a city of a little over a million people in eastern Ukraine.) It’s unclear whether the seminar was under the auspices of Exodus International or the Exodus Global Alliance, but the apparent title of the seminar, “Revolution,” echoes the theme of last years’ Exodus conference in Irvine, California.
Schmierer repeated the usual theories of what supposedly causes homosexuality, parent-blaming theories which come straight out of the Love Won Out playbook. You know, the distant-father, domineering mother, and general rejection themes which dominate the ex-gay mindset.
Schmierer is the author of several ex-gay books, including An Ounce of Prevention, What’s a Father To Do?, and Celebrating God’s Design — all of which have been translated into several languages, including Russian and Ukraine.
[Hat tip: Ruslan Porshnev of Anti-Dogma]
