Reaction and Appeal on the occasion on homophobic speech
28/12/2009
Submitted by
Coalition for protection and promotion of sexual and health rights of marginalized communities
On 20.12.2009 the 12th Annual Conference of VMRO-DPMNE’s Union of Women was held, under the motto "real values in the right hands”. During her address at the conference, the President of the Union, Kosana Nikolic Maznev, emphasizing their commitment to the preservation of “traditional family values” and stressing the “government efforts for a family with many children and the introduction of religious education”, also promoted homophobic speech as a strategy to spread fear, which directly and unambiguously attacked the concept of same-sex communities and marriage. This concept was characterized as a threat to society and a source of threat to traditional family values.
The Coalition for Protection and Promotion of Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities most severely reacted to the speech, which is a form of manipulation with the status and rights of one of the most marginalized groups in society, at a time when the Law for Fight Against Discrimination is due and the country begins to initiate debate and raises public awareness on the concept of non-discrimination. These circumstances, which stand as a witness and confirm the progressing practice of spreading homophobia by demo-Christian centre-right ruling structure is alarming, initially with the homophobic statements of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Milosevski, during the election campaign in 2006, continuing with the President of the state during his election campaign, and finally with the statement of the President of the Union of Women of VMRO-DPMNE.
However, even more concerning is the fact that this sort of speech is spread by a Union of Women, especially taking into account the fact that the historical struggle for the rights of LGBT people has had the greatest support and solidarity from the women's movement and feminism around the world. Solely as an example, we can indicate to the USA National Organization for Women, which has over 500 000 members, formed in the distant 1966 by the renown feminist Betty Friedman along with several other feminists leaders. Namely, in its political priorities, the organization, despite economic equality, amendments to the Constitution in the direction of equal rights, the right to abortion and reproductive freedom for women, has also included the fight against intolerance and inequality of LGBT population. In this regard, a series of international conferences and adopted declarations on the rights and equality of women, as well as political activism and cultural, social and epistemological efforts of modern feminism contribute to the argument.
The struggle against patriarchy, masculinity, machismo and chauvinism is a joint struggle of women and LGBTK people against discrimination, subordination and oppression of all those who due to their gender, sex and sexual identity are excluded from the political, social and cultural developments, as well as from equal and universal enjoyment of fundamental human rights. One of the most prominent feminists in politics and law, Cornell Drusila defined patriarchy as "state-imposed and culturally supported heterosexual norm of monogamy as the only proper organization of family life. This norm, as traditionally defined, sets the father as the head of the family line. Its crucial aspect is that the woman continues to be defined primarily by her reproductive capacity and place in the family, which renounces the right to self-representation of her sexual identity”. In such a patriarchal system, says Cornell, "heterosexual women, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual transgender figures are degraded in different ways, in the sense that their gender or manner of consuming sex is used as grounds for disclaimer of their equal status as a person.
Furthermore, we believe that this kind of speech in its form is a vulgar confirmation of one of the fundamental feminist slogans - "The personal is political", established by the feminist activist for women's rights, Carol Hanisch in 1969. Taking into account the fact that this kind of discourse evolves from the ruling political structure that has the power in decision-making and creation of public policies, it is an indicator, and another effort by the state to interfere directly in the intimate and sexual lives of its citizens, at the same time regulating and standardizing not only from cultural aspect, rather from aspect of the state and law. We want to remind that the sexual rights as fundamental human rights pertaining to human sexual life promote and guarantee sexual freedom, sexual autonomy, sexual equality, sexual freedom of association and free reproductive choice. We believe that this kind of speech is an obvious disrespect and violation of these basic human rights by the Union and by the individual, who is authorized with serious civil and political functions.
The fact that the "true value" of the family, including the right to adopt children is reserved exclusively for married heterosexual couples is highly disturbing. This concept obviously implies that the representative of the Union do not recognize and accept single mothers and their children as a family, furthermore do not raise or ignore the question of the right to adopt children by persons who have no marital status or are not married, women or men. The danger of this kind of position is that it jeopardizes women's political commitment to women’s autonomy by the mere fact that the single way for a woman to be recognized as such, or to have the right to children is to be in a heterosexual marriage or eventually give birth.
In the end, we would like to emphasize that the stated commitments of the Union of Women of the VMRO-DPMNE contradict the basic commitments and struggles of political activism for equality and rights of women. Hence certain questions arise. Namely, which are the traditional family values advocated by the representatives of the Union? Can we allow ourselves to forget that these same values are the source of oppression and inequality of women? Do the Union spokespersons overlook the fact that promotion of nationalist demographic policies reduce woman down to a reproductive machine and abolish her basic reproductive rights? Did they forget that the spokespersons for religious education less than a year ago called all women who have used their human right to abortion "murders of babies”? And finally, who are the women they speak for?
Based on the above mentioned, the Coalition appeals to all women's rights organizations, all feminists and all human rights activists and citizens who respect and defend the principles of equality and democracy, to publicly condemn the remarks and repudiate the above mentioned statements of the Union of Women of VMRO-DPMNE. Also, we appeal for solidarity and joint resistance against any form of oppression, discrimination, violence and disrespect of the principles of equality and universality of human rights.
The Coalition for Protection and Promotion of Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities most severely reacted to the speech, which is a form of manipulation with the status and rights of one of the most marginalized groups in society, at a time when the Law for Fight Against Discrimination is due and the country begins to initiate debate and raises public awareness on the concept of non-discrimination. These circumstances, which stand as a witness and confirm the progressing practice of spreading homophobia by demo-Christian centre-right ruling structure is alarming, initially with the homophobic statements of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Milosevski, during the election campaign in 2006, continuing with the President of the state during his election campaign, and finally with the statement of the President of the Union of Women of VMRO-DPMNE.
However, even more concerning is the fact that this sort of speech is spread by a Union of Women, especially taking into account the fact that the historical struggle for the rights of LGBT people has had the greatest support and solidarity from the women's movement and feminism around the world. Solely as an example, we can indicate to the USA National Organization for Women, which has over 500 000 members, formed in the distant 1966 by the renown feminist Betty Friedman along with several other feminists leaders. Namely, in its political priorities, the organization, despite economic equality, amendments to the Constitution in the direction of equal rights, the right to abortion and reproductive freedom for women, has also included the fight against intolerance and inequality of LGBT population. In this regard, a series of international conferences and adopted declarations on the rights and equality of women, as well as political activism and cultural, social and epistemological efforts of modern feminism contribute to the argument.
The struggle against patriarchy, masculinity, machismo and chauvinism is a joint struggle of women and LGBTK people against discrimination, subordination and oppression of all those who due to their gender, sex and sexual identity are excluded from the political, social and cultural developments, as well as from equal and universal enjoyment of fundamental human rights. One of the most prominent feminists in politics and law, Cornell Drusila defined patriarchy as "state-imposed and culturally supported heterosexual norm of monogamy as the only proper organization of family life. This norm, as traditionally defined, sets the father as the head of the family line. Its crucial aspect is that the woman continues to be defined primarily by her reproductive capacity and place in the family, which renounces the right to self-representation of her sexual identity”. In such a patriarchal system, says Cornell, "heterosexual women, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual transgender figures are degraded in different ways, in the sense that their gender or manner of consuming sex is used as grounds for disclaimer of their equal status as a person.
Furthermore, we believe that this kind of speech in its form is a vulgar confirmation of one of the fundamental feminist slogans - "The personal is political", established by the feminist activist for women's rights, Carol Hanisch in 1969. Taking into account the fact that this kind of discourse evolves from the ruling political structure that has the power in decision-making and creation of public policies, it is an indicator, and another effort by the state to interfere directly in the intimate and sexual lives of its citizens, at the same time regulating and standardizing not only from cultural aspect, rather from aspect of the state and law. We want to remind that the sexual rights as fundamental human rights pertaining to human sexual life promote and guarantee sexual freedom, sexual autonomy, sexual equality, sexual freedom of association and free reproductive choice. We believe that this kind of speech is an obvious disrespect and violation of these basic human rights by the Union and by the individual, who is authorized with serious civil and political functions.
The fact that the "true value" of the family, including the right to adopt children is reserved exclusively for married heterosexual couples is highly disturbing. This concept obviously implies that the representative of the Union do not recognize and accept single mothers and their children as a family, furthermore do not raise or ignore the question of the right to adopt children by persons who have no marital status or are not married, women or men. The danger of this kind of position is that it jeopardizes women's political commitment to women’s autonomy by the mere fact that the single way for a woman to be recognized as such, or to have the right to children is to be in a heterosexual marriage or eventually give birth.
In the end, we would like to emphasize that the stated commitments of the Union of Women of the VMRO-DPMNE contradict the basic commitments and struggles of political activism for equality and rights of women. Hence certain questions arise. Namely, which are the traditional family values advocated by the representatives of the Union? Can we allow ourselves to forget that these same values are the source of oppression and inequality of women? Do the Union spokespersons overlook the fact that promotion of nationalist demographic policies reduce woman down to a reproductive machine and abolish her basic reproductive rights? Did they forget that the spokespersons for religious education less than a year ago called all women who have used their human right to abortion "murders of babies”? And finally, who are the women they speak for?
Based on the above mentioned, the Coalition appeals to all women's rights organizations, all feminists and all human rights activists and citizens who respect and defend the principles of equality and democracy, to publicly condemn the remarks and repudiate the above mentioned statements of the Union of Women of VMRO-DPMNE. Also, we appeal for solidarity and joint resistance against any form of oppression, discrimination, violence and disrespect of the principles of equality and universality of human rights.
