Today the Archbishops of the Latvian Roman Catholics, Evangelical Lutherans, Baptists and the Orthodox asked all factions in the Latvian Parliament to adopt legislative changes to ensure protection of a family as a union of a man and a woman as now defined in the Latvian Constitution even before the end of this parliamentary period [next parliamentary elections in Latvia take place this October].

In their letter to the parliament, the Archbishops said: “We call upon MPs to adopt such changes that would realistically ensured implementation of the mentioned article of the Constitution, especially in regards to education system”.

The Archbishops expressed concerned that non-governmental organisations and initiative groups are “forcefully trying to get into the schools to provide sex education”. The authors of the letter said that such initiatives breach the rights of the majority of the Latvian people to educate their children according to traditional values. They said “society could express their opinion regarding this issue on a referendum but it is more strategic to work with the elected representatives”.

The Archbishops also called for a monitoring to ensure the family values are respected in the work of media and advertisement.

The Constitutional amendment to explicitly define marriage as a union of a man and a woman was adopted by the Latvian parliament last December.

This letter is yet another step by the Latvian Christian denominations to introduce censorship and to prevent any mentioning of homo-/bisexuality in the Latvian schools. Infamous No Pride campaign recently published on their website www.nopride.lv a new section in which they stirring a hysteria that homosexuals are trying to get into the schools. They also announced they are starting a political campaign to prevent sex education being inclusive of issues around homo- and bisexuality.

Following the second pride event last July, the Latvian Alliance of LGBT People and Their Friends ‘Mozaika’ was asked by the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration to submit a proposal to amend the National Tolerance Programme to include LGBT people as one of the priority groups. The National Tolerance Programme was initiated and adopted couple of years ago. Originally LGBT people were included as one of the priority groups, but once submitted to the government for approval, LGBT people were removed from the priority list. Mozaika provided amendment to the Programme and they have been approved by the Secretariat and now pending for approval by the government. Mozaika’s suggestions include targeted work, among others, with educations specialists to raise their awareness, information and knowledge on the issues of sexuality.