• 31/12/2022
• By wizewebsite
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Pirates will return to the game of marriage and adoption of gays - Novinky.cz<

Pirates bring gay marriage and adoption back into play

“It is a law that a liberal country should have in its legislation long ago. In the Czech Republic, marriages are still understood as something that has a spiritual charge, but marriages also take place at city offices, and are performed by city representatives," Pirates boss Ivan Bartoš told Práv.

His wife, Lydie Bartošová, a member of the Prague pirate party, has already discussed the bill with representatives of the gay community. One of them, activist and head of the Open Society Czeslaw Walek, may also come to the January national forum of Pirates in Brno.

Delete from documents?

Gay and lesbian marriages, according to the Pirates, would make homosexual relationships equal to heterosexual ones. In contrast to a registered partnership, marriage provides the couple with more rights, for example, it establishes the joint property of the spouses.

According to Bartoš, homosexual couples should also have the right to adopt children. "The most fundamental problem is, and hopefully everyone will agree, the placement of children in social care institutions. A homosexual family is better than institutional care," says Bartoš.

The fact that the law does not yet allow gays and lesbians to adopt is, according to Bartoš, more the fault of peer pressure than the fact that there is evidence that their upbringing could have a negative impact on the child in any way. "I think that we should have such a question resolved in Central Europe, in a country that pretends to be liberal, for decades," concluded Bartoš.

In 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled that even married homosexuals have the right to adopt children. However, this right belongs only to one of the partners, not to the whole couple.

Bartoš's wife met a few days ago with Lucía Zachariašová from the Jsme fér platform, which is sponsored by the Coalition for Marriage (Amnesty International, Logos, Mezipatra, Prague Pride and PROUD). She is currently collecting fifty thousand signatures on a petition to legalize gay marriage.

“They are preparing a bill on the marriage of gay couples and are looking for future support for it. They can organize a workshop, a discussion for us," Bartošová informed her fellow party members after the meeting in the register of lobbying contacts.

At the same time, she said that the Prague Pride organizer Walek might be taking part in the Pirates Forum in Brno, which takes place on January 6 and 7. "If anyone from the coalition is interested in coming, they are welcome. We are a liberal party, we have priorities such as human rights, the right to self-determination and family life over fear of the disintegration of traditional values," added Bartošová for Právo.

Adam Komenda from Ústeck is also actively interested in the rights of homosexuals, who switched to the Pirates from the People's Party precisely because of a different opinion on this issue. "In the future, I plan to consult with the Coalition for Marriage on the preparation of an amendment to the Marriage Act so that it also includes same-sex couples," said Komenda in the pirated record. With former Minister for Human Rights Džamila Stehlíková (formerly Zelení, now LES), he intends to discuss the rights of homosexuals to adopt children.

Pirates are also against sexual discrimination in their program: "Pirates stand for free self-determination of gender and sexual identity. We will abolish the obligation to indicate gender in official documents, where it is not essential for the settlement of the matter. We are advocating for the international decriminalization of homosexuality."

It is reminiscent of a wave in the world where, in the interests of so-called political correctness, gender labeling is abandoned. Instead of "ladies and gentlemen", for example, in the subway in New York, "passenger" is addressed neutrally. One of those who has so far supported greater rights for homosexuals and the adoption of children was former Minister for Human Rights Jan Chvojka (ČSSD). He has no problem with the Pirates' proposal.

The Greens passed with flying colors

“The marriage of homosexual couples or their possibility to adopt children is more a matter of values ​​than politics. Support for these proposals must be found across the political spectrum. I personally support both respective proposals. I think that if we have already said "and" and enacted the possibility of a registered partnership, we should not stop halfway," he told Právu.

His predecessor, Jiří Dienstbier, promoted the right of homosexuals to adopt their partner's child, but the law eventually fell under the table. Even before the elections to the House of Representatives, the Coalition for Marriage found out the positions of the candidate parties on the introduction of gay marriage and rated them as a report card.

The Greens got the first place, the Pirates finished with the second place. Activists also rated the ANO movement positively, which received two minuses. On the contrary, the People's Party, ODS, TOP 09 and SPD are against the changes. They all got high fives. The mayors and independents earned three, the CSSD minus three and the KSČM four.

It is no longer a rarity

Gay marriages are no longer a rarity in Europe. At the beginning of December, the right of gays and lesbians to marry was recognized by the Austrian Constitutional Court. It should apply from 2019.

At the same time, it is already the case in Austria that homosexual couples can adopt a child. In contrast to the Czech Republic, it is not simply a case of adoption of a child by one of the registered partners, but by both. Adopted children then have two fathers or two mothers on their birth certificate, who have parental rights and responsibilities towards them. The German parliament also approved gay marriage this summer.

In the Czech Republic, homosexual couples can enter into a registered partnership. From July 1, 2006, when it was enacted, until the end of last year, 2,510 couples entered into a registered partnership. Many others live with a person of the same sex.