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ZAGREB, June 7, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a major victory for pro-family activists in Crotia, the country’s highest court has ruled that the imposition earlier this year of a controversial sex education curriculum was unconstitutional and violated parental rights, and has ordered the government to remove the entire program.

“Enabling parents to take part in the preparation of a curriculum is a country’s constitutional obligation,” wrote Judge Mato Arlovic.  He added that consulting pupils' parents was “notably important in a curriculum linked to different attitudes and beliefs.” 

The Catholic bishops in the predominantly Catholic country had condemned the program, arguing that it would promote “pornography, promiscuity and homosexuality” to students as young as nine years old. As well, a leading American sexuality researcher had exposed the fact that a Croatian government official behind the program had completed his studies at the Kinsey Institute, named after the infamous sex researcher said by some to have launched the sexual revolution, and had co-authored a book with a prominent advocate of pedophilia. 

However, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has responded to the court’s judgment by saying that although court rulings “have to be honored,” he believes that sex education must be part of the school curriculum. 

“I will not give up in this fight,” Milanovic said according to AFP. 

Top journalist fired after exposing Kinsey connection

The fight over the sex education curriculum has at times been heated, with one of Croatia’s top journalist losing her job after she revealed on her program that the curriculum contained aspects tied to sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. 

On December 29, 2012 Karolina Vidović-Krišto hosted an episode on her program called “Slika Hrvatske” (Portrait of Croatia), during which she showed excerpts from a documentary by filmmaker Tim Tate called “Secret History – Kinsey's Pedophiles” that was based on the research of American researcher Dr. Judith Reisman. 

On December 30, 2012 HRT/HTV, which is the government-owned national media entity in Croatia, issued a statement apologizing for the program and clarifying that “the opinions expressed in the show are not the opinions of HRT. Due to serious breaches of professional rules and abuse of position, HRT will take strong measures.”

In an interview with LifeSiteNews, Vincent Batarelo, president of the conservative Croatian NGO “Vigilare,” described Karolina Vidović-Krišto as a devout pro-life and pro-family Catholic.

“Her program was removed because of these views,” Batarelo said, “and because she dared to challenge the 'official' views of the ruling liberal left political elite.” 

He said that in conservative circles she is “seen as a heroine.”

However, Batarelo said that following Vidović-Krišto’s dismissal, his organization ad another NGO, the Croatian Centre for the Renewal of Culture, fought back by contacting Dr. Reisman and bringing her to Croatia for a speaking tour. 

Dr. Reisman attacked for criticizing controversial program

Dr. Reisman was the principal investigator for a US Department of Justice research project on child sex abuse and is the Visiting Professor of Law at Liberty University. In the progress of her research she found extensive evidence of child sexual abuse and scientific fraud in the sex research of Kinsey, sometimes called the “father of the sexual revolution,” and of the sex education field globally. 

In her book, “Kinsey, Sex and Fraud,” Dr. Reisman says she exposes how “the most famous sex research project in history” was “fraudulent,” and how much of Kinsey’s data came from pedophiles and sex offenders who sexually stimulated children as young as two months old for hours at a time. 

“This rivals the Nazi experiments described at Nuremberg,” she says. 

Batarelo said that during her speaking tour, Judith revealed the fact that “the head of the government commission for the creation of the sex ed program, Dr. Aleksandar Stulhofer, had completed his studies at the Kinsey Institute and had co-authored a book titled ‘Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia’ with Theo Sandfort.” 

“Sandfort,” Batarelo explained, “who now works at Columbia University, openly in his native Holland advocated pedophilia (he was on the editorial board of the pedophile 'journal' called Paidika) as he does now in the US. 

“Stulhofer also had organized the first 'sexology conference' in Dubrovnik, Croatia 2001 and it was revealed that at least three of the participants were open advocates of paedophilia. It is a crime in Croatia to advocate for pedophilia,” Batarelo said. 

Dr. Reisman's speaking tour through Croatia in support of Vidović-Krišto was not welcomed by all. One writer described Judith as being “viciously smeared by the Croatian press,” while a report from the regional Dnevno.hr news service described “the staunch and aggressive, at times shockingly rude and utterly uncivilized opponents of Dr. Reisman's views.” 

“The pinnacle of such intolerance was when the faculty’s dean [at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb], Nenad Zakosec, came out and aggressively shouted at Reisman before hundreds of students, ‘What are you doing here!’” Dnevno.hr reported. 

Dr. Reisman told WorldNetDaily she has hired attorney Zvonimir Hodak to represent her in a legal challenge against the media and is working with attorneys in Croatia on a lawsuit some activists who falsely accused her of being a Holocaust denier, which is a criminal offense in Croatia. 

Court decision a sign of hope for Croatia

Vincent Batarelo of Vigilare told LifeSiteNews that, despite the shocking but not unexpected treatment of Karolina Vidović-Krišto and Dr. Reisman, he was very pleased with the Constitutional Court's decision to quash the controversial sex-ed program. 

“The court recognized what parents, conservative NGO groups, the Catholic Church, and other major religions in Croatia, had been saying all along – that the Minister of Education had forcibly and undemocratically introduced the sex-ed program which was a beachhead for importing gender ideology and indoctrinating Croatian children against the will of their parents and against article 63 of the Croatian Constitution and other European directives and laws which state that parents have the sole responsibility and freedom to bring up their children in line with their values.” 

“The actions of the Minister,” Batarelo stated, “were a dangerous throwback to communist times when schools were manipulated and used for the ideologies of the ruling regime.” 

Batarelo also relate that, in just two weeks between May 12 and 26, over 750,000 signatures were collected throughout Croatia (of a total population of 4.3 million) asking for a national referendum to change the Croatian Constitution to include a passage that marriage is solely defined as the lifelong union between one woman and one man. 

He said that this achievement, along with the court victory against the curriculum, should “give hope and inspiration to others to continue in the battles for the culture of life.”