Politics
Friday January 26, 2007
France MP Fined for Criticizing Homosexuality Under “Hate Speech” Law
Former Soviet dissident warns democracy being rapidly dismantled in Europe
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Gudrun Schultz
PARIS, France, January 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A member of France’s ruling party has been fined almost $4,000 for comments opposing homosexuality, under the country’s hate speech law.
Christian Vanneste was fined by a court in Douai, in northern France, and charged an additional $2,000 in court fees.
The case stemmed from comments Vanneste made in 2004, when the mayor of a small southwestern community performed a homosexual “marriage”, later declared illegal. Vanneste said homosexuality was “inferior” to heterosexuality and said the practice would be “dangerous for humanity if it was pushed to the limit.”
Three homosexual and lesbian activist groups filed suit against Vanneste under the law criminalizing the incitement of hatred against minorities--homosexuality had recently been included under that law.
The case marks the first instance where the law has been used to bring charges against a member of Parliament, after it was adapted two years ago to prohibit speech against homosexuality.
The introduction of “hate speech” laws in France and Britain symbolize the dismantling of democracy that is rapidly underway in Europe, a former Soviet dissident and key witness against the Soviet Communist Party warned last fall in Brussels.
Comparing the ideologically-driven policies of the European Union with the record of Communist Russia, Vladimir Bukovsky said the EU’s enforcement of political correctness was a symbol of the Union’s slide toward a similar oppressive regime.
“The Soviet Union used to be a state run by ideology. Today’s ideology of the European Union is social-democratic, statist, and a big part of it is also political correctness,” Mr. Bukovsky said in an interview with Paul Belien for the Brussels Journal. “I watch very carefully how political correctness spreads and becomes an oppressive ideology…Look at this persecution of people like the Swedish pastor who was persecuted for several months because he said that the Bible does not approve homosexuality.”
While he acknowledged that a significant gulf still separated EU policy enforcement from the oppressive control of the Soviet regime, Mr. Bukovsky warned that European countries are nonetheless under enormous pressure to conform to EU ideology.
Vanneste said he will appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights.
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Soviet Dissident Warns Ideology-Driven EU Becoming “Next Soviet Union”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110703.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
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.