Greetings and welcome to another Fuzzy Friday open thread diary for the Street Prophets group.
With all the attention on marriage equality in Alabama I thought I might write a bit about the recent referendum in Slovakia that seems to have been mostly ignored by the news. A lot of people ignored it on purpose.
Hop on over the elegantly whorled ginger hairball for a few examples of my copy & paste skills and a bit of my blithering on the referendum.
Even sitting practically right next door in the Czech Republic I wasn't really aware that there was a referendum going on in Slovakia. It seems to have been completely ignored by my usual news sources or the brief mentions without follow-up articles slipped into the dark depths of my news feed before I noticed them.
One picture, immitating a page from a Slovak children's first grammar book (sort of a Slovak "Dick and Jane" -- run, Spot run!) and translating as "Eva has moms", posted by an ex-colleague and friend on Facebook prodded my curiosity into action.
I was thinking it's just like those damn Slovaks to be a step ahead of the Czechs...
You see, the Czechs may have a law that allows for registered partnerships since 2006, but to squeeze that law through they've also accepted a grim compromise. The definition of marriage being between one man and one woman was written into the constitution and adoption rights for same-sex couples were forbidden.
One step forward, two steps back.
The Slovaks have yet to even take that one step forward.
More than 400,000 Slovaks, nearly 10 percent of the central European country’s electorate, have signed a petition demanding a national vote. It is a rare show of political engagement in a country where people often shun public affairs - a mere 13 percent voted in the European Parliament election last year.
The vote will not change the legal status quo on same-sex unions but rather could cement opposition to any changes. Gay unions of any sort are not legal in Slovakia; two attempts to push them through parliament failed in the past.
Last year, parliament inserted the definition of traditional marriage into the constitution.
The group behind the referendum, Aliancia pre rodinu (Alliance for the Family), says the traditional family is under threat and points to an increasing number of countries including neighboring Austria and the Czech Republic that allow various forms of same-sex unions, or child adoption by gay couples.
"In many countries you feel that people are walking away from the family, they do not consider it to be an important value," said Anton Chromik, an attorney who has taken time off from his practice to help lead the movement.
"Slovaks want to say that for them it is the most important thing in their life."
The referendum poses three questions: whether marriage can only be a union of a man and a woman, whether same-sex couples should be banned from adoptions, and whether children can skip classes involving education on sex and euthanasia.
And on Saturday, February 7th only a smidgen over 21% of the Slovak electorate bothered to come to the polls and vote for inequality, falling far short of the over 50% needed to pass a referendum of this nature. Now both Slovaks and Czechs are experts at avoiding voting in elections and polls that they don't give a damn about. Elections held in Slovakia to elect representatives to the Euro-parliament managed to draw a whopping 13%! Numbers for domestic elections in Slovakia are normally expected to be over 50%. LGBT rights groups encouraged people to stay home, go fly a kite, march in a parade... anything but lend this referendum any legitimacy by taking part. And indeed, the referendum was ignored. In a country where 62% of the population claim to be Catholic, with the backing of the local Catholic Church and even
Pope Francis and this
toilet bowl ring it couldn't pass.
With over 90% of those taking part voting "yes" to all three restrictions to what should be rights there weren't enough of them to pass it.
It managed to dredge up a few things though:
Last month, Slovak SRo public radio pulled an episode of a regular religious programme that included hate speech against sexual minorities.
A transcript of the unaired sermon, which was given by a Greek Catholic priest to a church congregation, slanders gays as "filth" and a "plague" that must be driven out of Slovakia.
"I'm sad and disillusioned about what the campaign ahead of the referendum brought to our country," centrist President Andrzej Kiska told reporters, alluding to incidents of anti-gay hate speech.
That same article also notes that:
A 2012 opinion poll in Slovakia showed that 47 percent of respondents supported civil unions for gays while 38 percent were opposed.
The Catholic church in Slovakia staunchly backed the constitutional ban on gay marriage introduced last year, but the issue is not one at the forefront of public debate.
"The result suggests family is a top priority for Slovaks, but at the same time they do not want to marginalise anyone," Martin Macko, head of the Bratislava-based Inakost gay rights group, told STV late Saturday.
What bothers me most about all this, somewhat mitigated by the hopeful signs in the polling and the
continuing efforts of Martin Macko to gain at least some form of registered partnership for Slovakia, is the emphasis that the intolerant conservative groups placed on "family." Their campaign was laden with slogans like "Vote 'YES' for the family!" when in reality all their discriminatory crap is doing is tearing apart families.
Right now, as I type this, there is a talk show on Czech television where the subject being discussed is "marriage." They're talking about the failure of the referendum in Slovakia, the near 50% divorce rate and what the Czech government is currently doing and what its plans are to support the stability of families. So far, it's the usual fluff of noncommital answers with the current guest fielding questions from the internet. The moderator is doing her best to nail his feet down as he dances around the questions.
Sigh, he's there as a coordinator for the National Week of Marriage: Family, family, family values, Christian Values...
Oh dear, now she's cornered him on the normality of homosexuality. Rather well done on her part. Got him to admit that homosexuals are normal people-- huzzah! progress.
He seems rather deluded when it comes to historical marriage arrangements. He's describing arranged marriages as if they always end happily ever after.
Oh well, as I was saying, what bothers me most about the opposition to marriage equality is their continued emphasis on "family". It's become a sort of buzz word like "freedom" that gets waved around like a flag while a lot of small-minded ideas hide behind it.
The word "family" is starting to sour in my mouth.