St. Petersburg legislature set to outlaw promotion of homosexuality
The municipal government of St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city and cultural centre, is set to pass a bill prohibiting promotion of homosexuality.
The bill, which prohibits “public activities promoting homosexuality,” is being denounced by homosexualist activist groups as “anti-gay” and it is being vocally opposed by the U.S. State Department.
The bill proposes to outlaw the dissemination of information “which could cause damage to the health or moral and spiritual development of minors, including by inducing them to form warped perceptions that traditional and non-traditional married relations are equally socially acceptable.”
If passed it would impose fines on individuals or groups promoting homosexuality, pedophilia, or “transgenderism” to minors.
The U.S. State Department deplored the plans, saying, “As Secretary Clinton has said gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights. We have called on Russian officials to safeguard … freedoms [of speech and assembly], and to foster an environment which promotes respect for the rights of all citizens.
“We have also consulted with our EU partners on this issue. They share our concerns and are also engaging Russian officials on this. The United States places great importance on combating discrimination against the LGBT community and all minority groups.”
But the bill’s author, United Russia deputy Vitaly Milonov, has denied it will infringe on civil rights and freedoms. “We are only talking about propaganda as this information about sexual deviations affects our children,” he said.
~
Leading UK homosexualist admits the condition neither genetic nor fixed
Peter Tatchell, one of Britain’s most vocal advocates of the homosexualist political movement, has admitted that sufferers of same-sex attraction are neither “born with” nor stuck with the condition.
Much of the argument upon which the promotion of homosexuality as a “legitimate lifestyle choice” is founded is the paradoxical assertion that it is not a choice at all, but a fixed state of being, probably determined by genes. This is the basis of the claim that opposition to homosexual activity is “homophobia” and tantamount to racism.
But Tatchell, writing last month in an article in the Huffington Post, titled, “Future Sex: Beyond Gay and Straight,” cited the notorious Alfred Kinsey, the researcher often called the grandfather of the sexual revolution, denying that “gay and straight” are distinct categories.
Kinsey’s research, Tatchell said, “was the first major statistical evidence that gay and straight are not watertight, irreconcilable and mutually exclusive sexual orientations.”
“He found that human sexuality is, in fact, a continuum of desires and behaviours, ranging from exclusive heterosexuality to exclusive homosexuality. A substantial proportion of the population shares an amalgam of same-sex and opposite-sex feelings – even if they do not act on them.”
He claimed that homophobia in the developed world is waning and wonders what the world will look like “as future societies eventually embrace a post-homophobic culture.”
“If human civilisation evolves into a state of sexual enlightenment, where the differences between hetero and homo no longer matter, what would this mean for the future of same-sex desire and same-sex identity?” Tatchell mused.
~
Hungarian Prime Minister says “If the Church were stronger, the nation would be stronger.”
While his country withstands a conflagration of international outrage at its proposed new constitution, the Hungarian prime minister has stood fast and openly described Hungary as a Christian nation.
Speaking in German to a Polish journalist, Viktor Orban said that the lack of respect for human life is a relic of the Communist regime, which hold people and life in contempt.
“If we had a strong Church, then the nation would be much stronger.” Orban said that with the Constitution and other legislative changes, he is “in the process of attempting an alliance with politicians, for whom Christendom and traditional values are important,” the German language Catholic news site Kreuz.net reports.
The new Constitution, strongly supported by voters, declares that human life must be protected from conception and says that marriage can only be contracted between a man and a woman. This has infuriated European Union secularists who are issuing threats to try to force a change back to the EU’s standards.
Orban said that factions in the EU and elsewhere are angered that the Hungarian government is distributing the EU funding to the promotion of adoption instead of abortion.
On the long tradition of prayer in Central European culture, he said, “For me this tradition has great significance.” Orban, a Protestant, said that people praying for him has been “a great power and help for me” in his political life.
“I would like to thank you for this talk and wish God’s blessing on every single citizen of the Polish nation.”
~
Vladimir Putin pledges to protect persecuted Christians abroad; Egyptian Copts hounded out of their homes by Muslim extremists
The Russian Prime Minister and Presidential candidate, Vladimir Putin, has told media that he wants to protect persecuted Christians abroad. While reports of anti-Christian violence continue to pour out of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Putin made the promise on Wednesday in Moscow at a meeting of members of various Christian denominations.
Putin was quoted by he Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, saying it is important that the “various confessions” continue to cooperate internationally.
Putin was responding to a statement by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Illarion, that “every five minutes a Christian must die for his faith”. A recent study has shown that around the world, even in first world countries, the great majority of religiously-motivated violence is aimed at Christians, mostly by Muslims and by governments of Communist nations like China, North Korea and Viet Nam.
The Director of the Foreign Office of the Moscow Patriarchate, said persecutions are “especially noteworthy” in Muslim-dominated countries like Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and India. The Christmas day bombing of Catholic and other Christian churches in Nigeria by Islamic group Boko Haram has become almost an annual ritual.
Friday’s headlines from Egypt highlight the plight of the Christian Copts as the “Arab Spring” demonstrations have resulted in the ascendancy of a radical Islamist-led government. Sixty-two Coptic families have reportedly been driven out of their homes in a village, Kobry-el-Sharbat, outside Alexandria.
Local Muslims burned homes and shops with the acquiescence of local police. The violence was said to have been triggered after a Coptic tradesman allegedly took photos of a Muslim woman with his cell phone.