The Slovenian parliament on Tuesday passed an amendment allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt after a constitutional court ruling made it the first country in Eastern Europe to do so.
The family law amendment was passed by 48 MPs, with 29 against and one abstaining.
Slovenia, which emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia, is the first former communist country to endorse this reform in Europe, as most of its neighbours do not allow civil unions or same-sex marriages.
The government of Estonia came the closest in 2016 by agreeing to recognize same-sex unions created in other countries. Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Montenegro have laws establishing same-sex civil partnerships - and in Hungary, even talking about homosexuality in front of children has been punishable by a fine since the summer of 2021.
In July, Slovenia's highest court ruled that the law defining marriage as only between a man and a woman discriminated against gay and lesbian couples.
It suspended the contested articles with immediate effect and ordered parliament to amend the text within six months.
"With these changes, we are recognising the rights of same-sex couples that they should have had for a long time," State Secretary Simon Maljevac told MPs when presenting the amendment.
The main opposition party, the Slovenian Democratic Party, criticised the court's decision and organised several rallies against the new law.
"The best father will never replace a mother and vice versa," said SDS parliamentary group chairman Alenka Jeraj at the opening of the debate.
Intersex and non-binary gender/gender fluid are different things. Someone can be both, but one is physical/genetic and one is identity eta: and neither necessarily has to do with being gay
(...) Let me say first that the country has quickly evolved on the acceptance of gayness, and that includes an evolution among Black people. But as acceptance and visibility rise, the minority who feel threatened by gay people has grown louder. They talk in apocalyptic terms about a âgay agendaâ destined to recruit throngs to a gay âlifestyle.â
Letâs clarify: Being gay is not a lifestyle that one can choose, like being a jet-setter or a bohemian; it is an immutable feature of a life. Also, there is no explosion of gayness simply because gay people are now more visible than they once were. They still account for less than 10 percent of the population. Gallup recently measured a modest rise in those identifying as L.G.B.T. in the United States, to 5.6 percent in 2021 from 4.5 percent in 2017.
That is a tiny fraction of the entire population. And yet they are still targets. I donât see a gay agenda in this story but an anti-gay agenda.
So first, let me say this: Whenever I encounter a passionate homophobe, my mind immediately focuses on his passion. Why would a straight man devote so much time and energy to hating gay people? What is the return?
Is this something that settles on the brain, these particular brains? And why canât the thought be quickly and easily vanquished?
I am always reminded of what James Baldwin told The Village Voice in a 1984 interview: Macho men are âfar more complex than they want to realize.â As Baldwin put it: âThey have needs which, for them, are literally inexpressible. They donât dare look into the mirror. And that is why they need faggots. Theyâve created faggots in order to act out a sexual fantasy on the body of another man and not take any responsibility for it.â
In other words, some homophobes outwardly attack that with which they inwardly battle. (In the case of these rappers, I accept their identities at face value and imply nothing to the contrary. Thatâs their business, not mine. See how that works, fellas?)
But there is another idea that Baldwin expressed in that interview that I think is even more important to explore, that âthe sexual question and the racial question have always been entwined.â
So many things about this observation ring true.
I have always contended that all of the -isms and -phobias are cousins, that in a society that creates a hierarchy of humanity with white, straight, cisgender men at the apex, every person who is not white or straight or cisgender or male gets assigned a lower order of being.
In that sense, racism and sexism, homophobia and transphobia all branch from the same tree.
And one bias can influence and amplify another. (...)
During Sundayâs âSwamp Rangersâ radio program, radicalanti-LGBTQactivist Scott Lively declared that God stripped Donald Trump of the presidency because of Trumpâs promotion of the LGBTQ agenda by giving a gay man, Richard Grenell, prominent positions within his administration.
Lively was an ardentsupporter of the former president and had hoped that Trump would use his presidency to destroy the LGBTQ movement by enacting Russian-style anti-gay laws in the United States. Since that didnât happen, Lively said that God had no choice but to remove Trump from office.
Lively lamented that Trump was good on just about every issue, âexcept on the homosexual issue, which I think is his biggest mistakeâ and âthe reason why he lost the election.â
âHe defied God on a fundamental tenet of the Bible and never repented of it,â Lively said. âIf Donald Trump was, as I believe, Godâs man in the White House for four years, why did God not preserve it? Because if God had given him favor, nothing that mankind could have done could have removed him from that office. And yet the one thing that he did during that time that would virtually guarantee Godâs favor being removed was to put his own personal stamp of approval on behavior that God condemns in the harshest possible terms in the Bible, which is specifically male homosexuality.â
âTrump fully endorsed and backed and applauded (Richard) Grenell,â Lively added, â(who) was an outspoken advocate for the central doctrine of the progressive movement, which is queer theory.â (...)
Sadly, Pete Buttigieg has dropped out of the race. I wasn't going to vote for him due to his lack of national political experience, but at the very least he raised the notion among Americans that we could have a gay man as president.
Being gay shouldn't be a checkbox for voters to look at. Qualifications matter.
But then ... that bigot Trump goes and spoils things again - and appoints Richard Grenell as the acting DNI. First cabinet post ever to an openly gay person. Gay and qualified! Damn Trump!
"Grenell â who is openly gay and announced last year that he would lead a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality â was appointed in 2001 as U.N. spokesman by President George W. Bush and held the position for the next seven years, serving four ambassadors."
What's that? W appointed a gay guy too? Impossible!
"Being gay shouldn't be a checkbox for voters to look at. Qualifications matter."
Agreed, but some Americans will still reject a qualified gay person solely because of his/her sexual identity.
As for Grenell...good for Trump that he apparently didn't have a problem with Grenell's sexual orientation. But from what I've read, Grenell is not qualified.
Sadly, Pete Buttigieg has dropped out of the race. I wasn't going to vote for him due to his lack of national political experience, but at the very least he raised the notion among Americans that we could have a gay man as president.
Being gay shouldn't be a checkbox for voters to look at. Qualifications matter.
But then ... that bigot Trump goes and spoils things again - and appoints Richard Grenell as the acting DNI. First cabinet post ever to an openly gay person. Gay and qualified! Damn Trump!
"Grenell â who is openly gay and announced last year that he would lead a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality â was appointed in 2001 as U.N. spokesman by President George W. Bush and held the position for the next seven years, serving four ambassadors."
Sadly, Pete Buttigieg has dropped out of the race. I wasn't going to vote for him due to his lack of national political experience, but at the very least he raised the notion among Americans that we could have a gay man as president.
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