The political alliance Development/For! (Attīstībai/Par!) in cooperation with The Progressives (Progresīvie) party has initiated discriminatory amendments to the Criminal Law, which will place the LGBT community above other groups of society and will restrict freedom of speech for the rest of society.
The purpose of such amendments is to attract an electorate of homosexuals and their supporters to the specific parties. It should be recalled that such a plan was already in place for liberal-wing politicians in 2017. Juris Pūce, the leader of the For Latvia's Development (Latvijas attīstībai) party, in his pre-election campaign placed the main emphasis on the draft Law on Cohabitation. Now Pūce is trying not to be seen in public too much, because he lied miserably when, as a minister, he tried to use his connections to get a Riga parking lot permit for himself and his wife. However, Pūce's strategic calculations to get the votes of homosexuals and their supporters are still considered to be quite useful in the liberal wing. Under the leadership of Pūce, the association of political parties Development/For! together with The Progressives party, tries to serve influential LGBT organizations. Elections are approaching, and they have to fight for power in the municipalities and, in a year's time, for power in parliament. This is the political background to the amendments to the Criminal Law submitted by the Members of Development/For!
Amendments to the Criminal Law have been submitted by deputies Vita Anda Tērauda, Marija Golubeva, Andris Skride, Dace Rukšāne-Ščipčinska, Gatis Zamurs, Inese Voika, Krista Baumane. Last week, they went to the Legal Affairs Committee. Here's the link where you can read the draft law and its annotation. And here's what the relevant articles of the Criminal Code will look like if they include LGBT lobbyist-driven corrections (their intended innovations are marked in italics):
“Section 48. Aggravating Circumstances
(1) The following may be considered to be aggravating circumstances:
14) the criminal offence was committed due to racist, national, ethnic, social group, sexual orientation or religious motives;
Section 150. Incitement of Social Hatred and Enmity
(1) For a person who commits an act oriented towards inciting hatred or enmity depending on the gender, age, disability of a person or any other characteristics, if substantial harm has been caused thereby,
(3) For the act provided for in Paragraph one of this Section, if it is related to violence or threats if it has been committed using any forms of physical, sexual or emotional violence or threats, or the criminal offence provided for in Paragraph one of this Section, if it has been committed by an organised group, the applicable punishment is the deprivation of liberty for a period of up to four years or temporary deprivation of liberty, or community service, or a fine."
Why are these amendments dangerous for Latvia's democracy and freedom of speech? Because if adopted, one small group of the public involved in spreading LGBT ideology will gain a monopoly on hate speech. More specifically, it will have the exclusive right to prosecute people of different views, even if no harm has been done to anyone, as the condition of substantial harm is removed. Even if there has only been an exchange of opinions, and even if there has been no exchange of opinions at all. It is sufficient for the applicant to report to the police that he or she has a non-heterosexual orientation, and the police will take the most severe action against the heterosexual person identified by the homosexual or transgender accuser. This and other publications of a similar nature can then be declared hate speech that deserves a sentence of up to four years in prison. Just because they have opinions that LGBT propagandists don't like.
As an example we can take Neatkarīgā publication “The ones rewriting the concept of family. Who are they?" (in Latvian).
It tells who and with what resources are organizing the same-sex marriage legalization campaign:
1) The new initiative and campaign "Spouses" is implemented through its employees by the professional media agency Deep White, which is directly related to the political alliance Development/For!
2) The previous initiative to legalize civil partnerships was initiated by Raimonds Petrovics, who bullies women who have been raped.
More about this person was written in the publication "Gay rights fighter bullied women who have been raped" (in Latvian).
But in the extremely liberal media, the same character, who is not well-liked even in homosexual circles, is now being made a hero. The pro-American newspaper "Ir" now contains an open letter from Raimonds Petrovics, which states, among other things:
"Homophobia in Latvia is intensified by some of the parties elected to the Saeima, which conservatively express hatred towards minorities. The social situation in Latvia is alarming, unacceptable, the hatred must end!”
There is no doubt that if the amendments to the criminal law are adopted in the proposed wording of the opinion group Development/For/Progressives and LGBT-paid lobbyists, it really will end. Not just hatred, but the right to conservative views. Any article that is not complementary to the political activities of the LGBT community can be treated as incitement to hatred. And any politician who positions himself as a conservative will be able to be brought to court. And not just journalists and politicians. Also the clergy who preach a conservative understanding of the family structure, as is written in the scriptures. It will be possible to initiate criminal proceedings for constructive criticism, jokes, kindergarten-level name-calling. Because all conservatives and nationalists are backward fools, but LGBT interest activists are wonderful and progressive people.
The consideration of amendments to the Criminal Law in the responsible Criminal Law Policy Subcommittee of the Legal Committee will start this week. Conservative politicians believe that the most dangerous thing in this bill is precisely the exclusion of the criterion of "substantial harm" from Section 150. As Jānis Iesalnieks, a deputy of the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība), explains:
"There are currently no unjustified criminal proceedings precisely because it is necessary to prove that the 'hate speech' directly caused 'substantial harm'. If this is removed, the police will in fact have to initiate criminal proceedings following any application in which someone has seen a 'hate speech', as the consequences no longer need to be assessed. Whether the case will be dismissed or not will already depend on the subjective attitude of the person conducting the proceedings.”
There is no doubt that no individual, no group of society must be discriminated against. This is determined by Article 91 of the Constitution: “All human beings in Latvia shall be equal before the law and the courts. Human rights shall be realised without discrimination of any kind." The existing Criminal Law provides full rights to appeal against discrimination of any nature and form, if any has happened. In turn, I believe that the rewriting of the Criminal Law proposed by the Development/For/Progressives/LGBT association will inevitably come into conflict with Article 100 of the Satversme.
Because “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to freely receive, keep and distribute information and to express his or her views. Censorship is prohibited."