Homphobic referendum in Croatia

[mysig]

baxus,

an incident on a football field is not a considerable setback in real terms but an inflexible, borderline-idealistic attitude can certainly lead to one. as you mentioned yourself, the government's in a tight spot and they have to pick their battles carefully. the simunic affair is regrettable but at the end of the day it is not a given that it requires direct governmental intervention - social censure is a far more effective tool in this instance.

what is remarkable, however, is that the government is not taking a populist stance. it is actually attempting to push through structural changes (the life partnership act, for instance) that will have significant long-term consequences not just on the lives of those benefiting directly but also in terms of how the debate may be framed ten years down the line. and that's the real battle, right now.

so, aye, the glass isn't just half-empty here.

[Ormond]

Question for any anthropologists/sociologists out there: Are there any cultures that don't have an incest taboo?

There are no cultures in the world that have ever approved of sexual relations between biological parents and their children (though unfortunately there are probably also no cultures where such deviant behavior hasn't sometimes occurred.)

I don't know of any present day cultures that approve of sexual relationships between siblings. However, there were three ancient cultures that had brother-sister marriages for at least part of the population.

In two of them, Polynesian Hawaii and the Incas in Peru, brother-sister marriages were only approved of among the royal family.

In the third, ancient Egypt, though brother-sister marriages were most common among royalty, we know from genetic analysis of mummies that at certain times in ancient Egyptian history wealthy commoners imitated the Pharoahs and also had brother-sister marriages.

Uncle-niece and aunt-nephew relations would also be generally disapproved of, though there were at least a couple of instances in European history where the Pope gave dispensation for such marriages to occur within European royal families.

[baxus]

baxus,

an incident on a football field is not a considerable setback in real terms but an inflexible, borderline-idealistic attitude can certainly lead to one. as you mentioned yourself, the government's in a tight spot and they have to pick their battles carefully. the simunic affair is regrettable but at the end of the day it is not a given that it requires direct governmental intervention - social censure is a far more effective tool in this instance.

what is remarkable, however, is that the government is not taking a populist stance. it is actually attempting to push through structural changes (the life partnership act, for instance) that will have significant long-term consequences not just on the lives of those benefiting directly but also in terms of how the debate may be framed ten years down the line. and that's the real battle, right now.

so, aye, the glass isn't just half-empty here.

the problem is that it's not about simunic, it's about thousands and hundreds of thousands who supported him after the fact, president of croatian f.a. (famous for, among other things, taking flowers to the grave of ante pavelic, the head of croatian nazi state in WW2) even started some conspiracy theory.

using a nazi can and did lead to a rise in xenophobic sentiments and thus is a considerable setback in trying to build a more tolerant society.

and last, but certainly not least, inciting ethnic, religious or any other kind of hatred requires direct governmental intervention.

[The Iceman of the North]

It's not likely to slow it down either (their admission is already negotiated, it just needs to be ratified by the other member states), since many of the current members have similar constitutional definitions of marriage and most of those don't even have any form of registered partnership, which Croatia will have.

Not quite true, of the 30 members, just 7 have either a constitutional ban, or are not in the process of legalizing either same-sex marriage or civil unions, and as far as I know, all five of the countries with a constitutional ban got it after joining the EEA. All it takes is one of the 30 members to decide that accepting a new member with a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage is wrong for the admission to be stopped.

[TerraPrime]

[mod hat]

The sub-thread on incest has been moved to a new thread. Please keep this thread topical to same-sex marriage issues, particularly as related to the recent laws in Croatia.

[/mod hat]

[baxus]

it's not homphobic, but it is a referendum in croatia.

a petition with 600,000+ signatures has been turned in demanding a referendum to reduce rights of minorities to the use of their own alphabets.