Posted on 08/21/2008 4:40:51 PM PDT by wagglebee
BRUSSELS, August 21, 2008 (C-FAM) - A recent report from the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) of the European Union (EU) has called for binding EU regulations that would equalize the legal status of married heterosexual couples with that of same-sex and opposite-sex couples across Europe. It also recommends policies aimed at "promoting visibility of homosexuality and other gender identities" and criminalizing homophobia through "hate crime" legislation.
FRA contracted writing of the report to a group called FRALEX. FRALEX is roughly the same group as the now defunct EU "network of independent fundamental rights experts," a group that was widely criticized for trying to get the government of Slovakia to abrogate a treaty with the Vatican that provided conscience protection for doctors unwilling to carry out abortions.
The European Parliament requested FRA's opinion in drafting a new EU law, called a directive that would prohibit discrimination based on "sexual orientation" in employment, education, social security, health care, and access to goods and services. Current EU laws extend that kind of protection only in the area of employment, leaving other areas to be treated in national legislation.
The 165-page report goes beyond examining the proposed directive and contains analysis of all possible aspects of EU and national laws that possibly discriminate against homosexuals. Areas include employment, freedom of movement, asylum, family reunification, freedom of assembly, and criminal law.
The report argues that EU law should force member states, in which there is no registered-partnership or "gay marriage" legislation, to treat poeple in these arrangements as married couples. Currently, the EU allows citizens of the EU and their family members to move and reside freely anywhere in the EU. The EU also allows third-country nationals who are spouses of EU citizens to reside legally in the EU. Both of these regulations refer to marriage in the traditional sense, although they allow exceptions when the move or reunification happens between countries that recognize other forms of relationships as equivalent to marriage.
The extension of marital privileges to same-sex and cohabiting opposite-sex couples is justified in the report by reference to the EU's "fundamental principle" of "equal treatment." Yet, the definition of same-sex and opposite-sex couples is not precisely defined in the text. The authors refer to "stable and permanent relationships" or "de facto durable relationships" or relationships with "a sufficient degree of permanency." Arguably, only couples involved in a sexual relationship would benefit from the proposed extension of current EU regulations. The report does not contain any prescriptions of how governments might attest to and discern such relationships.
Other parts of the report call for mandatory national "equality bodies," preferably with independent units dealing only with homosexual issues. It argues for endowing them with "quasi-adjudicatory functions" that would allow them to issue "binding sanctions or orders, subject to review by courts." It also argues for a sweeping EU regulation that would make "homophobic hate speech a criminal offense."
Maciej Brachowicz, a human rights expert from Poland-based Jegiellonian Club, told the Friday Fax that "if one were to agree with FRA's opinion, there are barely any legal grounds left for claiming that any inequality in social life should not be treated as discriminatory."
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Loony.
INTREP
You know, it’s going to get to the point where if a man wants to marry and women or a women wants to marry a man they may find themselves hauled in because they are being accuse of refusing to marry someone of the same sex or some other thing like a cow or a goat. They’ll make continuing the human species a crime in itself. The people who come up with this stuff are pure evil and they hate anything that is good.
Are there no bounds for Europe’s lunacy?
Even worse, these folks THINK they are good. They go to sleep at night congratulating themselves on their heroic deeds, and they will continue to do the same when they eventually round up Christians and others who oppose them.
Maybe we should boycott the EU until it starts recognizing basic rights, such as the freedoms of speech and association. Freedom NOT to associate or employ homosexuals, and freedom to speak against the lifestyle are at issue.
It’s the white Europeans that are behind this, of course. The Muslims are not lobbying for gay marriage. With white European fertility far below replacement levels, don’t they have more important things to do than promote a non-procreative “lifestyle”?
mathew 24
37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
The days are going to get worse, my friend. Those in the days of Noah were wicked beyond salvation - we’re seeing it come to pass.
There is no logic to this
How can you criminalize a phobia when a phobia by it’s very definition is an anxiety disorder and is therefore a mental health issue.
How can you criminalize one phobia without criminalizing all phobias?
True enough. Than comes the question wouldn't that be discriminating against the mentally ill i.e. phobic, OC, etc.? And wouldn't that be prejudicial, elitist, and therefore illegal?
I, personally, am not 'homophobic'. I do not fear the faggots. If anything, I'd say I'm 'homodisgustive'. Perhaps even 'pervert averse'.
Say wha'? By definition, aren't "married heterosexual couples" pretty much already "opposite-sex couples"?
No wonder the Brits and the Irish nixed the draft Euronstitution.
Wow, I’m seeing scenes from Tolkiens epic - the Brits are Gondor and the EU is Mordor.
What is the phobia called that is fear of normalcy?
Aren’t these people afraid of normacly?
In the end, the survival of a totalitarian state requires the destruction of organic society, with the family being the prime enemy of the governing authority.
See tagline.
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