Slovakia: marriage for all at last?
An attack on the LGBTI movement in Bratislava in which two homosexual men were shot dead last week has triggered a debate in Slovakia about improved legal protection for sexual minorities. Commentators are only cautiously optimistic that progress will finally be made in in this area.
Democracy must serve all minorities
Pravda points out that there have already been several unsuccessful attempts to achieve equality for same-sex relationships:
“The first draft law on the civil partnership between two persons of the same sex dates back to October 2001. With Slovakia's accession to the EU many things have changed for the better. Therefore many believed - naively - that membership would also make it possible to push through this agenda. Well, 21 years have passed and we're exactly where we were before. ... In a democracy, it should be a matter of course to take the interests of minorities into account. If we have succeeded in doing this with ethnic minorities there is not the slightest reason why this should not also be the case with sexual minorities.”
Opponents mobilising
So far it's mainly the sceptics who are speaking out, observes Aktuality.sk:
“On the fringes of social opinion, objections are already brewing against the possibility of enshrining in law the possibility of defining relationships between two people - through marriage, for example - differently than before. There's no hurry, they say. ... People are using ideology to instrumentalise the tragedy of Bratislava for their own purposes. Moreover, the Slovaks are extremely sensitive to change. ... Politicians are guided one hundred percent by the moods of the voters on these issues, without any ambition to influence and advance them in a positive direction.”