Rada plans to jail LGBT critics
Bill No. 3316 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada, providing for criminal liability for intolerance towards LGBT people.
This was reported by the press service of the Ukrainian parliament, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The document “On amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine (regarding combating hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity)” was developed and submitted for consideration by Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk, a deputy from the Servant of the People.
The bill proposes to establish criminal penalties in the form of fines and prison sentences for intolerance, public calls, and humiliation based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).
It provides for the inclusion of prosecution on the basis of SOGI as an aggravating circumstance in most articles of the Criminal Code relating to violence (Articles 67, 115, 120,121,122, 126,127,129, 293, 294).
“Public calls for hostility, violent acts, persecution or humiliation on the grounds of SOGI are punishable by a fine of 3400 to 8500 UAH for citizens and from 8500 to 17000 UAH for officials or restrictions / imprisonment for up to five years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or carry out certain activities for a period of up to three years or without it. The same actions committed by an organized group of persons or resulting in grave consequences will be punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to eight years,” the document says.
The bill was commented on the Magnolia TV channel by the founder of the Love Against Homosexuality movement, Ruslan Kukharchuk. In his opinion, this initiative is aimed at destroying fundamental freedoms and providing sexual minorities with enormous privileges.
“I have been working on the topic of countering LGTB propaganda for about 17 years, starting in 2003, and I know very well all the Ukrainian laws that arose in this area. And I want to say that this bill is the most impudent of all that have ever appeared in the Ukrainian parliament.
This bill is actually about destroying freedom of speech. It is very cynical that it is a journalist who is the author of a bill that destroys freedom of speech in Ukraine. This law destroys the right to peaceful assembly, the right to freedom of religion, and even freedom of political activity.
According to this bill, even words that homosexuality is a sin and a deviation will be considered an incitement to hostility, and, accordingly, a reason for a fine and imprisonment,” the social activist was indignant.
He also expressed hope that this incident would put an end to the political career of the initiator of the bill, deputy Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk.
“Mrs. Olga Wasilewska-Smagliuk directly poses a threat to fundamental rights and freedoms. It threatens the democratic foundations of a free society. She wants people to shut up and not say anything.
I am very interested to ask her voters from the 96th district of the Kiev region - families, parents, mothers, grandparents, whether they know that their deputy is very concerned about the rights of homosexuals, lesbians, transgender people and other people with psychological deviations, which is obvious , is a medical diagnosis.
Therefore, today this is an absolutely authoritarian idea, which, I hope, will put an end to the future political career of Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk, and it is very important for everyone to remember this name,” concluded Kukharchuk.
Note that before being elected as a deputy, Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk worked on the 1+1 TV channel owned by oligarch Igor Kolomoisky
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