m******1
发帖数: 19713 | 1 Poland Rejects Proposed Gay Civil Unions
Poland’s legislators rejected three pieces of draft legislation that would
have recognized same-sex civil unions, a defeat for the country’s prime
minister who had thrown his weight behind the proposed laws but was outvoted
by those citing Catholic teaching.
The debate in Parliament over the bills was a sign of the tug-of-war between
more liberal-minded and secular politicians and conservatives who support
traditional religious values that has characterized Poland’s approach to a
range of social issues as it reintegrates with Western Europe.
Poland’s first openly gay lawmaker, Robert Biedron of the Palikot Movement
party, presented two of the bills in the lower house, known as Sejm. A third
bill was introduced by the ruling Civic Platform party of Prime Minister
Donald Tusk. It was the first time the Polish Parliament has considered
granting some rights that married people enjoy to homosexual couples.
The two civil-unions bills presented by Mr. Biedron were defeated by firm
majorities. But the Civic Platform legislation was defeated narrowly, with
211 MPs in the 460-seat lower house voting to allow the bill to move forward
. About a fifth of the ruling party’s house members refused to back it and
teamed up with opposition conservatives to produce 228 votes against it.
All of the legislation would have allowed couples to register partnerships
and gain the right to inherit property tax-free and to make life decisions
in the other partner’s name, among other privileges. Even though the
legislation was expected to be mostly used by opposite-sex couples, the
change would have been profound for gay relationships that currently enjoy
no explicit recognition in Polish law.
Shortly before the final vote, a quarrel erupted between Mr. Tusk and his
justice minister, Jaroslaw Gowin, who argued that the legislation was
incompatible with Poland’s constitution, which calls for the protection of
marriage as a union of man and woman.
Mr. Gowin is seen as an informal leader of a conservative group within the
ruling party and has previously spoken against public funding of artificial
insemination and a Council of Europe convention on preventing domestic
violence, which the government eventually signed.
Mr. Tusk urged the house to ignore Mr. Gowin’s objections and allow the
legislation to proceed.
“It’s not the government’s position that the bills violate the
constitution,” he said. “One can’t close one’s eyes to social facts. We
have marriages described by the law and guaranteed by the constitution, we
have informal couples, and we have homosexual relationships, as well as
singles. It seems obvious that the current legal setup doesn’t reflect that
those social facts exist.”
In the 2011 parliamentary campaign, Mr. Tusk sought to lure more liberal
voters by promising to put the legislation before Parliament if he won. The
ruling Civic Platform party won the most votes, but has to rely on a partner
, the Peasants Party, for a majority in the lower house. On civil unions,
its coalition partner Friday sided with the conservatives.
Opponents said the primary goal of couples is to procreate, which is why
same-sex unions can’t be recognized. “Society can’t fund a sweet
existence to unstable, barren unions of people from whom it doesn’t benefit
only because of the sexual attachment that binds them,” said Krystyna
Pawlowicz of the opposition Law and Justice party.
To back up their viewpoint, some of the opponents pointed to the concept of
natural law, which isn’t, however, among the sources of law enumerated in
the Polish constitution. Ms. Pawlowicz also said the bills sought to “
exhibitionistically allow for displays, in the public sphere, of sexual
inclinations that violate the sense of aesthetics and morality.” | D**S
发帖数: 24887 | 2 东欧自打共产旗帜倒台，就成了保守宗教重灾区．不过中国大陆，虽然情况不同，但是
在LGBT权益上也没有好哪里去． |
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