Ukraine vote on anti-gay gag bill reportedly shelved

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – A global queer rights campaign is reporting that Ukraine’s parliament has cancelled a scheduled vote on a bill that would forbid its citizens from speaking out favourably about gays or lesbians.

Allout.org says the last-minute cancellation of the vote is a “crucial victory” for opponents of the legislation, which could have had a chilling effect on freedom of speech and expression. It says the move means there is limited opportunity to bring it back for consideration before the dissolution of the sitting parliament.

Draft law 8711 would make it illegal to “spread homosexuality” by “holding meetings, parades, actions, demonstrations and mass events aiming at intentional distribution of any positive information about homosexuality.” Flouting the law would incur fines and up to five years of jail time. Fines and prison time would apply to journalists who publish favourable articles about gay people, anyone featuring lesbian characters on TV, or teachers who publicly support human rights for gay people in the classroom.

“More than 120,000 All Out members spoke out against this horrible legislation and pushed it to the top of Europe’s diplomatic agenda,” Andre Banks, co-founder and executive director of All Out, said in a statement. “Together we are sending a strong message to the other governments of Eastern Europe. Support for anti-gay laws embolden extremists at the expense of lucrative European ambitions.”

Landing image source: queerlandia.com

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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