Without seeing the achievements of Latvia's democracy and the overall growth of society, certain marginal interest groups try to discredit the Latvian state, presenting it in a markedly negative light as a backwards land obsessed with homophobia and hatred. This is a fertile ground for restricting freedom of speech.
Criminal statistics show something else: by far the highest proportion of crime victims is among men, and the most common crimes are not domestic violence and homophobia, but petty theft, fraud, property crime, drug-related crime and rape. Neatkarīgā has written about it several times. For example, in the publication “Violence is being glorified because of the Istanbul Convention.”
However, such facts do not correspond to political accents dictated from abroad. On May 17, in honor of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, a rainbow flag was raised at the US Embassy in the presence of the most influential representatives of the Latvian LGBT community. Most politicians and many calendars have forgotten that before it has been Fire and Rescue Day. And Family Day on May 16 is also forgotten.
Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš also noted the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, reminding that "tolerance and respect for each other is the main path to our common growth and development." In practice, however, the LGBT lobby seeks changes to laws that are not aimed at tolerance and respect, but at dividing society, restricting freedom of speech, and highlighting one group of society over others. I am talking about privileges for people with an unconventional sexual orientation. Monopoly on identifying hate speech. After the death of one person in Tukums was declared a homophobic crime, amendments were submitted to the Criminal Law, which would grant special privileges to the LGBT community. It is already known that what happened in Tukums was not related to an expression of hatred, and most likely it was not even a crime. However, parties that are hoping to get the votes of the LGBT community and its supporters continue to use the Tukums tragedy for political purposes and are fighting to give privileges to this exclusive group of sexually like-minded people.
It should be recalled that all forms of hate crime are already severely punished and incitement to hatred against any social group is considered an aggravating circumstance. Hate crimes are a relatively rare phenomenon. At the sitting of the Legal Affairs Committee, police statistics were mentioned by MP Jūlija Stepaņenko. In 2020, 11 cases were initiated - on hatred against migrants and on the basis of sexual orientation. However, LGBT organizations want to bring sexual minorities to the forefront of other social groups. For a special mention in the Criminal Law so that every crime is viewed directly through the prism of sexual orientation. For crimes against sexual minorities to be punished more severely than against other social groups.
The proposals prepared by Andrejs Judins, MP of the Unity (Vienotība) party, and a more moderate alternative, prepared by the Ministry of Justice, were first considered in the Saeima Criminal Law Policy Subcommittee and were rejected. Judins' proposals were also rejected in the Legal Affairs Committee, which has a more liberal composition, but one proposal prepared by the Ministry of Justice was supported. Thus, the goal of LGBT lobbyists has been achieved, at least in part, at this stage of the legislation.
In Section 48 of the Criminal Code, the committee proposes to include social hatred as an aggravating circumstance, and LGBT ideologues treat sexual minorities as a social group in need of special protection. During the debate at the meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee, MP Jūlija Stepaņenko expressed the prediction that this particular amendment would not be used to equally protect all groups in society, whether it was parents with many children, Christians, motorcyclists or forest owners. It will be used in demonstrative cases involving sexual minorities. However, it is important to mention here that the LGBT recommended waiving of the criterion of significant harm in the evaluation of hate crimes was rejected. Deleting this criterion would lead to a flood of unfounded applications to the police and jeopardize freedom of speech. But at least for now, people will not be taken to court for different opinions, biting anecdotes or childish name-calling. And the Ministry of Justice's proposal to insert the words "on grounds of sexual orientation" in Section 150 was also rejected. This section penalizes acts aimed at inciting social hatred and enmity and already states "or any other characteristics."
A law office explained that supplementing such an article by listing various specific features, including sexual orientation, would be adding amendments for the sake of amending.
In general, the debate on the draft law in the committee was intense. MP Aldis Gobzems stated in passing in the remote videoconference, that "all people are equal before the law and all violence must be punished identically," regardless of the social group to which the victim belongs. "Why is this one group more important, for example, than me as a Christian?" Gobzems asked rhetorically, and that question was not answered at the meeting. Because all people are equal before the law. That is what the Constitution tells us. And it also says that censorship is forbidden. The Saeima must respect this when considering both the amendments to the Criminal Law promoted by a member of the Prime Minister's Party, as well as those that will follow from other parties fishing for LGBT votes - For Latvia's Development (Latvijas attīstībai), Movement For! (Kustība Par!) and The Progressives (Progresīvie).