Politics
Monday March 10, 2008
European Council to Hear Homosexual Activists for Mandatory "Gay Marriage" in Member States
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By Hilary White
STRASBOURG, March 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual activist organizations that lobby for the redefinition of marriage in their home states, were invited to speak to the Council of Europe's Parliamentary hearings Friday on the legalization of same-sex "marriage".
The Council of Europe, not to be confused with the Council of the European Union, which is the EU's legislature, is the body that founded the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, but has no juridical force over EU member states. The Council of Europe, with 47 current member nations, is the oldest European transnational body, founded after WWI with the endorsement of Winston Churchill, among others.
A group of socialist and leftist representatives of the Council organized the hearings after complaining that there is too much variation in the ways member states deal with the issue of homosexual partnerships, whether by civil unions, civil partnerships or by including homosexual partners in legal "marriage" by re-writing the definition, as has been done in Spain and the Netherlands.
The European Council should consider, members have suggested, whether same-sex "marriage" ought to be required of member states under various provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the guarantees of a right to privacy in family life and a right to marry.
Swiss Socialist politician, Andreas Gross, said last week, "Intolerance toward lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people is still clearly present in our societies."
"This hearing should enable us to better understand the different points of view, even hostility, in certain sectors of society, and look at how to achieve positive change in mentalities and legislation".
"Lesbian and gay people have the same fundamental rights as anyone else," he added.
Some member states of the European Union, such as Poland, Malta and Ukraine, retain a strongly Christian social and cultural orientation and have objected strongly to the pressure imposed by European transnational organizations to normalize homosexual activity.
The European Union continues to attempt to force such countries to accept homosexual unions of some kind, whether as "marriage" or as legalized civil partnerships. In 2007, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was found guilty by the European Court of Human Rights of violating the European Convention on Human Rights when he banned a homosexual activist 'Gay Pride' demonstration in 2005 as the then-Mayor of Warsaw.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
"Homosexualism does not Correspond to Moral Principles of Society": Ukraine Parliamentary Committee
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08030703.html
EU to Force Poland, Malta, Italy to Recognize Gay "Marriages"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050204.html
European Human Rights Court Rules Polish President Violated Human Rights by Banning Gay Pride Marches
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07050305.html
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