Have Russia, Poland and Hungary infected Latvia with the anti-LGBTQI virus? A new anti-LGBTQI constitutional amendment has been put forward by the Latvian Parliament. Selma Levrence of the Latvian NGO Protests Youth explains the situation to Rémy Bonny.
Five years ago, when Euro Pride was organised in Riga the future for the LGBTQI-community was looking bright. Recently, more negative LGBTQI-news come from Latvia.
Last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples need to have legal recognition. However, On January 7, members of one of the ruling parties in Latvia, National Alliance, submitted a draft amendment to the Constitution.
The draft law would introduce the exclusion and discrimination of various models of family, and most explicitly same-sex families.
Last Thursday, the 14th of January, a majority of the Parliament declared the draft law admissible. This starts a procedure of several months, perhaps years, where an anti-LGBTQI campaign will dominate the political debate.
Will Latvia join other European countries like Russia, Poland and Hungary in scapegoating LGBTQI-people in an attempt to abolish democracy?
Rémy Bonny invited Selma Levrence to discuss the anti-LGBTQI amendment to his podcast PRIDE.
Selma is the chairwoman of Protest Youth, Latvia’s biggest youth-led progressive organisation. Her organisation wrote an open letter, co-signed by many other organisations in Latvia, to fight against the law.
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Rémy Bonny 