Hungary Bans Gay Marriage

Back in December we learned that Hungary had approved a draft version of a new constitution that outlaws same-sex marriage. Today lawmakers there officially adopted that constitution. The 2009 law granting same-sex couples some rights after registering their partnerships remains in effect.

International Viewpoint predicts that the EU will do little about Hungary's newly official ban.

The European commission scarcely dares to take action when member states invoke religious freedom to disregard EU-fundamental rights. For example, in the case of Lithuania, where a law was passed that bans the “promotion of homosexuality," effectively rendering gay people invisible. The controversial Hungarian media law also includes a paragraph of this type, which states that the media must show respect for marriage and the institution of family, whereby the government aims to constitutionally enshrine the definition of marriage as being between a man and woman. The new Hungarian media supervisor has already qualified public expressions of homosexuality as in conflict with these standards, and therefore potentially punishable under the new law. Discrimination of this type is clearly in conflict with the ban on discrimination in the EU treaties.

RELATED: Hungary assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU in January.

Quote Of The Day - Jerzy Buzek

"David Kato was a man that fought for the rights of people to live freely regardless of their sexual orientation in Uganda. David Kato suffered a violent death and I send my condolences to his family. I call for the perpetrators of this crime to be brought to justice. He was a remarkable human rights defender. I regret that Uganda is a country where homosexuality is still considered a criminal act. David Kato's battle was to improve tolerance and encourage tolerance of divergent views of sexuality and defend the rights for lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender persons and protect vulnerable minorities." - European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, responding to yesterday's murder with a renewed call for Uganda to decriminalize homosexuality.

EU To Czech Republic: Stop Boner Tests

The European Union is telling the Czech Republic to cease testing the homosexuality of gay asylum seekers by hooking them up to a penile tumescence monitor while they watch straight porn. According to Czech immigration officials, getting an erection while watching heterosexual porn meant the applicant was lying about escaping gay persecution in their home country. The Czech Republic is the only EU nation performing such tests.

European Parliament Says Gay Unions Must Be Recognized By All EU Members

The European Parliament has declared that official documents such as marriage, civil union, birth, and death certificates must be recognized by all members of the European Union. Rex Wockner reports at Pink Paper:

"This is a great development for the many couples and families who see their fundamental rights diminished every day when crossing a border inside the EU," said Ulrike Lunacek, co-president of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights. Co-President Michael Cashman said the statement adopted by the Parliament "follows the Commission's assertion in September that freedom of movement must be guaranteed for all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation." "Claims that mutual recognition will undermine national sovereignty are plain wrong; it won't affect national marriage or partnership laws, but simply recognize civil unions that already exist," Cashman said.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the EU member nations of Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Civil unions or partnerships are recognized in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.

POLAND: Activists Launch Billboard Campaign For Civil Partnerships

Polish LGBT activists have launched a billboard campaign called Love Doesn't Exclude Us in Warsaw and Lodz to support their demand for a civil partnerships law. Campaign organizer Wojciech Szot writes us today:

The aim of the campaign is to draw attention to the fact that Poland has no civil partnerships law, and Polish legislation provides no regulations for same-sex couples. 
Today, Poland is the biggest European Union Member State in which same-sex couples are invisible for the law. The law ensures no legal protection to them, does not regulate their situation, takes in fact no account of their existence.

This is unfair. This is an exclusion - in many areas of life.



Poland is also one of the very few European countries where the authorities have not taken up any measures whatsoever in this area. One of the aims of our campaign is to show that legal frameworks for same-sex relationships are a European civilisational standard and that social evolution in this area has not bypassed Poland. Our law, however, does not follow the reality in this respect, and the authorities refrain from any dialogue with the society at large and with our interest group. “Love Does Not Exclude” is therefore an expression of this very pressing social need – the voice of those who are invisible to the law and ignored by politicians. For half a year now we’ve been hearing that a debate should be held in the Polish parliament, but will this happen before the parliamentary elections? Will the government and the opposition listen to their electorate?

Join their Facebook page here. Photos of the billboards in place can be found here.

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