Posted on 01/20/2006 6:47:55 AM PST by dukeman
The justice minister of the European Union, Franco Frattini, announced this week at the EU parliament in Strasburg that member states which do not eliminate all forms of discrimination against homosexuals, including the refusal to approve marriage and unions between same-sex couples, would be subject to sanctions and eventual expulsion from the EU.
According to a report by the Archdioceses of Madrids news service Analisis Digital, the commissioners statements came as the governments of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland ruled against legalizing homosexual marriage.
Homophobia is a violation of human rights and we are watching member states on this issue and reporting on cases in which our efforts have been unsuccessful, Fratti said. In this way the Commission and the European Parliament seek to make any refusal to grant homosexual couples the same rights as a married couple a crime of homophobia, the report warned.
Frattini-- who was elected EU commissioner after the EU parliament rejected the nomination of the Catholic intellectual Rocco Buttiglione because of his opposition to homosexual unions-- has proposed designating 2007 as the year of Equal Opportunity. The objectives would be to inform the public about their rights, promote diversity and, as a value of the Union, make this goal a priority.
Some EU parliamentarians demanded specific sanctions against states that do not follow the anti-discrimination law and refuse to call homosexual unions marriage, for example. Michael Cashman, President of the European Parliaments Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights, proposed expulsion from of the EU of those countries that do not adhere to anti-discrimination legislation.
If we do nothing we are accomplices in the crimes of violence that we see occurring in many member states, said Cashman, who is also vice president of the organization Gay & Lesbian Humanists. The organizations website says it is at war with Catholic-inspired homophobia.
Nevertheless, reports Analisis Digital, these proposals have been contested by Polish EU representative Jan Tadeusz Masiel, who called the adoption of children by homosexual couples repulsive and shocking. Likewise, her fellow Polish EU representative, Barbara Kurdycka, said the EU Parliament had no business telling people what they should think about homosexuality.
"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. "
Might sound like America but Mystery Babylon refers to a political system and religious system.
I dunno, it could apply to Saudi Arabia too.
Interesting.
The EU does not have a Constitution.
Yet this single individual and a handful of "EU parlimentarians" are determining who can be kicked out and who can be included in the EU.
Not on the basis of anything that was voted on or established policy, just the personal opinion of a couple of people.
Interesting.
The EU does not have a Constitution.
Yet this single individual and a handful of "EU parlimentarians" are determining who can be kicked out and who can be included in the EU.
Not on the basis of anything that was voted on or established policy, just the personal opinion of a couple of people.
Do widzenia, EU.
You are absolutly correct. I knew that and screwed up anyway. One should not start composing the next sentence in thier head until they are finished typing the sentence they are on.
"Expulsion from the EU" seems like a stretch, though, because it's a practical impossibility. If the EU's strongest response to Jörg Haider was to downgrade some embassies and cancel some social events, I can't see them going any further with regard to this issue.
What will happen is that some country like Spain or Belgium will become a reverse Nevada where same-sex couples from Latvia and Poland will fly to get married and those countries will find themselves forced to recognize the "marriages." That will be the m.o. without actually changing those countries' laws.
The gist is accurate, but this guy is also going off half-cocked on an issue that is somewhat beyond his control. Getting expelled from the EU is harder than getting yourself removed from the Chicago voter rolls. It's simply not in the cards.
This highlights why we must distance ourselves from Europe, and never follow their lead. Our founders killed and died for our independence. The need for it remains as strong today as ever. We must be ever vigilant to protect it.
You're absolutely right of course that expulsion of a member state from the EU is all but impossible based on this reason and just about any reason for that matter. What I meant was that it seemed inevitable that full rights for gays, including same-sex marriage, would come to be considered a basic human rights tenet of the EU. When and how it's adopted in each member state and what will happen to the laggards is a whole 'nother topic!
How can one guy make that threat without someone backing him up? I thought the EU was a sort of democratic organization which member countries vote on things like this.
I realize I'm mixing my languages, but "VIVA POLAND!" You guys are the best.
Yes. That's exactly
what the Establishment is.
It's the secular
("religion") world trade
("political") world nexus
defined and run by
US businessmen
and US politicians
who have made "free trade"
and "humanism"
global imperatives built
from their US roots.
It's unfortunate
the realities behind
those imperatives
are not directly
supported by most of us,
(who are Christians and
believe in "fair" trade)
but in the bigger picture
those businessmen and
politicians act
essentially in our name --
they're "America."
And they've created
from their American "base"
Mystery Babylon.
crime of homophobia
How about the crime of 'Christophobia', or 'Perversion'? I bet they don't exist under the EU.
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