Slovenians overwhelmingly reject same-sex ‘marriage’ in referendum
A Slovenian pro-family coalition has won a referendum rejecting by
a two-to-one margin a law legalizing same-sex "marriage," despite
many roadblocks. It matches pro-family initiatives across Eastern Europe.
The Christian Coalition claimed a complete victory. It had not
only won the referendum required, by a 63-36% margin of the popular vote, but
also surpassed the required quorum of 30% of eligible voters by 7%. Its
leaders, Metka Zevnik and Aleš Primc, issued a brief note of triumph, stating,
"We have succeeded! Congratulations to all of you who in the referendum
contributed to the excellent outcome! We are grateful to all supporters and
sympathizers and their families for all the support and excellent work."
A referendum earlier this year in Slovakia produced an
astonishing 94% majority against same-sex "marriage," but only 21 %
of the electorate participated, far below the 50% threshold required.
(Last year, Slovakian legislators enshrined heterosexual marriage in the
constitution.) A Croatian referendum in 2013 produced the same margin as
Slovenia's and met the threshold to enshrine marriage in the constitution.
The Slovenian referendum overturns a law passed in March that
legalized same-sex "marriage," extending to same-sex couples the
especially contentious "right" to adopt.
It's For The Children Coalition's victory comes at the end of a
long battle with what was described by the pro-family agency Agenda Europe as "the left-leaning political
class" of "residual communists" who controlled the National
Assembly.
The coalition already won this fight once, in 2012, overturning
a measure that extended to same-sex couples all the rights of married couples
save adoption and the use of the term "marriage" for their
relationships.
This March, a new parliament passed a law extending full
recognition to same-sex "marriage" by a 51-28 margin. The coalition
immediately launched a petition to hold another referendum. Requiring 2,500
uncertified signatures for this the first stage, the coalition produced 80,000.
Next, it needed to gather 40,000 "certified" signatures in 35 days.
The coalition garnered 48,000 inside a week.
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The National Assembly promptly vetoed the referendum because, it
claimed, in the words of Agenda Europe, "it would lead to an
unconstitutional result, depriving a group (those with same-sex attraction) of
their right to marry."
When the coalition announced its intention to challenge that
vote, the president of the assembly decreed arbitrarily that opponents had only
a week to file their challenge with the Constitutional Court. The coalition
challenged the deadline with the same court and won, gaining a 15-day
extension. In October, the court ruled in their favor by a 5-4 margin, ruling
that the National Assembly, not the drafters of the referendum, had violated
the constitution.
The referendum proceeded smoothly from there, producing not only
a check to the homosexual agenda, but a stiff rebuke to the country's
parliamentarians and what Agenda Europe termed their "obscene misuse of
power."
The Slovenian effort won praise from Peter LaBarbera, head of
Americans for Truth about Homosexuality. "It's very encouraging,
indicating that in reality people are opposed to same-sex marriage, opposed to
men becoming women, opposed to men marrying men, whenever you go outside the
decadent Western countries such as the United States, Canada, and Northern
Europe."
LaBarbera echoed the comments of Agenda Europe, characterizing
the LGBT agenda as the latest expression of left-wing politics. "Regular
people in Jamaica, in Kenya, in Slovenia are fighting back against the new
leftist morality," he told LifeSiteNews.
"The left has turned itself upside-down; it likes to
condemn imperialism and colonialism – but this is nothing but a new form of
imperialism," said LaBarbera, charging U.S. President Barack Obama with
applying "LGBT imperialism" to weak and poor countries.
At least eight European Union member states have legalized
same-sex "marriage" laws: the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark,
England, Spain, France, and Portugal. On the other hand, at least eight
European countries have passed laws to the contrary: Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Croatia.
