Politics
Wednesday February 14, 2007
Ukrainian Political Leader Accused of Attacks on Gays After Criticizing Homosexuality
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Gudrun Schultz
KIEV, Ukraine, February 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual activist organizations have accused Ukrainian politician Leonid Grach of attacking homosexual people, for comments he made criticizing homosexuality in November 2006.
Communist Deputy Grach, 58, is the chair of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament). Speaking in an interview last fall, Grach said homosexuality “is an anomaly, which is caused by the amorality and the depravity of man.”
He also said the present Parliament would not vote for legislation permitting same-sex unions and homosexual adoption, and said the next Parliament would not need to address the issue at all.
Homosexual and lesbian Ukrainian groups, led by the Nash Mir Gay and Lesbian Centre, were reportedly outraged by the comments, sending letters to Mr. Grach to demand that he support and protect homosexual rights.
Mr. Grach spoke out against homosexuality again last week, however, saying, “I, and my colleagues in Parliament, have to defend society from intrusions upon morality.”
“We must not admit into the consciousness – and souls – of people of any age the thought that the State is on the side of the people who are sowing debauchery, propagandising for depravity, for sexual permissiveness, and for bringing the abomination of seduction into society.
“The State must protect society from an evil, from violence, including such evil as homosexuality, lesbianism and suchlike others,” he said.
Ukrainians must observe the norms of “moral cleanliness, bequeathed to us from ancient times by orthodox ancestors.”
While homosexuality was decriminalized in the Ukraine in 1991, there is little support for legal recognition of same-sex couples in the strongly Orthodox country. Liberal estimates find 85 percent of the population would not support legal homosexual unions.
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- US Congress Passes Health Care Reform Bill 220 - 215
- Stupak Amendment to Health Care Bill Passes 240 - 194 Saturday Evening
- NY Times: Dems Banking on Later Squeezing Pro-Life Language Out of Bill in Committee
- USCCB Spokesman: "Definitely Not True" that Bishops Support Bill As it Stands
- TIME Got it Wrong - Prof. George Opposed Grandiose Kennedy Funeral
- Major Health Care Development - Pro-Life Stupak Amendment Vote OK'd for Saturday
- USCCB Condemnation Tears Facade off "Phony" Abortion Compromise for Health Bill
- Health Care Bill Includes Monthly Abortion Premium: House Minority Leader Boehner
- TIME Article Setting Burke Against O'Malley Called "Tactical strike" on Behalf of Catholic Left
- Dirty Fighting on Abortion Funding: Word-Games and Health-Care Theatrics Boggle the Mind
- Commentary on November 6 News
- Note to LifeSiteNews Subscribers with Rogers email addresses
- New York Gov. Declares Nov. 10 Extraordinary Legislative Session for Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Washington's Pro-Family Amendment Effort Defeated - R-71 Almost Certain to Pass
- Vote Pushed Back on Canadian Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Bill to Dec. 2
- Elderly U.K. Couple in Good Health Commit Suicide, Complain of Assisted Suicide Law
- Texas Late-Term Abortionist and Baptist Minister Admits: "Am I killing? Yes, I am"
- New Evidence Contradicts CCHD's Findings on Accused Pro-Abortion Partner
- Quebec Priest Denies Possibility of Sexual Reorientation Therapy on TV
- New Hampshire Same-Sex "Marriage" Law in Crosshairs after Maine's Law Crumbles
- Brooklyn Bishop Criticized for Recorded Message Praising Pro-Abortion Politician
- First Group of "Traditionalist" Anglicans in Britain Votes to Enter Catholic Church
Most Read this Week
- Planned Parenthood Director Resigns after Watching Ultrasound of Abortion Procedure
- Nun Defiant Following Rebuke, but Stops Abortion Escorting
- Breaking: Dominican Community Apologizes for Nun Caught Acting as Abortion Escort
- TIME Article Setting Burke Against O'Malley Called "Tactical strike" on Behalf of Catholics Left
- Over 200 Christendom College Students Protest Abortion at Planned Parenthood Clinic
- US Congress Passes Health Care Reform Bill 218 to 215
- Newly Identified Corporate Supporters of Planned Parenthood Named
- Scottish Gay Rights Activists Found Guilty of Pedophilia Sentenced to Life Imprisonment
- Major Health Care Bill Development - Stupak Hyde Amendment Vote OK'd
- Health Care Bill Includes Monthly Abortion Premium: House Minority Leader Boehner
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.