orthodoxrights.org

November 19, 2015. The deputy chairman of the Department for external Church relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Archpriest Mykolay Danylevych said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not support discriminations against homosexual people but she is against the homosexual propaganda, as the official website of the UOC MP reports.

During the press conference after the meeting of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations on Thursday 19 November, archpriest Mykolay underlined that the new bill on Labour permits propaganda of gay lifestyle.

At a press conference held in Kiev in the premises of the news agency “Interfax-Ukraine”, the representatives of Ukrainian faiths presented their official position in public regarding the recently voted draft law by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament) on the amendments to the Labour law. The press conference was also attended by the head of the association “Novomedia” Ruslan Kukharchuk, archbishop of the Kivien Patriarchate Yevstratii (Zorya), deputy chief rabbi of Kiev David Milman, the head of external relations of Ukrainian greek-catholik church archpriest Alexei Petrov, senior bishop of the Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Church Igor Lukyanov.

The representatives of the Council unedrscored that the bill was not adopted democratically, and the provision banning discrimination to “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” was not exposed to extensive discussion but it was voted in violation of the procedural norms. They also noted that homosexuality is stranger to the Ukrainian culture, and if Ukraine expressed its desire to enter the EU, it should give back to people a higher level of morality and not the immorality that they try to impose and promote.

The draft law included the legislation terms “gender identity” and “sexual orientation”, which are new for the Ukrainian legislation. According to the members of the Council, making such amendments to the current legislation of Ukraine could lead in the near future to discrimination against people who practice traditional family values, the Christian view of marriage, as well as allegations of so-called homophobia. In the future, this will open the way for the introduction of other, now common in some European countries, standards, and legalization of gay marriage, the introduction of quotas for homosexuals in employment, the possibility of adoption of children by homosexual couples and the banning of criticism of the homosexual lifestyle.

The representatives of doctrines recalled that in the early stages of the bill, the Council submitted a proposal, which would allow avoiding discrimination on any grounds, but the Parliament did not consider it.

Archpriest Nikolai Danylevych noted that the main motive for the adoption of this draft law was the implementation by Ukraine of the requirements for visa liberalization. However, there are countries in the world, including some Latin American and Arab states, which have criminal penalties for homosexuality, and in fact these countries have a visa-free regime with the European Union. “So, you can get visa-free travel without the legalization of gay marriage”, said the representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.