Approaching Sodom > Slovakia enshrines 2-genders only in constitution

 

EU country enshrines two genders in constitution

Slovakia’s parliament has approved an amendment framed as a shield against “progressive ideology”

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Slovakia’s parliament has approved a constitutional amendment specifying that there are only two genders, male and female. Of the 99 lawmakers present, 90 voted in favor of the measure, TASR news agency reported on Friday.

The move sets Slovakia at odds with prevailing EU norms, which stress the recognition of gender identity and protections for LGBTQ rights.

The amendment raises the prospect of conflict between Bratislava and Brussels, since the EU insists that European legislation must take precedence over domestic rules.

The changes go beyond gender definitions: they limit adoption rights to married couples, ban surrogacy, and require equal pay for men and women. The new provisions are due to take effect on November 1.

READ MORE: EU is out of touch with global reality – Fico to Putin

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico framed the reform as a shield against the “progressive ideology” being imposed by Brussels, casting it as an assertion of national sovereignty.

His Slovak National Party coalition said the vote showed that “reason, values and principles can prevail even within the European Union,” according to TASR.

Critics have denounced the amendment as a dangerous retreat from human rights and equality, warning that it would contradict international human rights law and leave transgender, intersex, and non-binary people legally unprotected.

Hungary took a similar step in April, defining gender strictly as “sex at birth” and giving priority to the right of children to physical, mental, and moral development over other rights.

Hungarian foreign minister vows to protect ‘national interests’ after meeting Lavrov

The trend also echoes developments beyond the EU. In his inaugural address in January, US President Donald Trump declared that “there are only two genders, male and female,” before ordering federal agencies to stop recognizing nonbinary identities.

Russia, meanwhile, has banned gender reassignment and “non-traditional gender ideology,” with its Supreme Court in 2023 designating the “international LGBT movement” as a terrorist organization.

Unlike Slovakia and Hungary, neither the US nor Russia has constitutional provisions explicitly specifying that there are only two genders.

Official Turkish Body Said it was OK for Girls to Marry at 9, Claims it was Only Following Islam

The Caliphication of Turkey

Turkish schoolchildren in Ankara / Reuters / Umit Bektas

Turkey’s opposition have demanded a parliamentary investigation into the Directorate of Religious Affairs, an influential government department, after it proclaimed that Islamic Law approved of boys marrying at 12 and girls at 9.

In an online religious glossary intended for the public released earlier this week, Diyanet, as the body is known, stated that these are the earliest ages for children to reach adolescence, and once the threshold of emotional and physical maturity is crossed, they must be allowed to marry “to save themselves from adultery.”

Child rape is preferable to adultery in Islam.

The statement ignited an immediate firestorm of opposition from politicians, women's rights activists, and secularists.

"The Turkish Civil Code clearly states that adulthood begins at the age of 18. Early marriages violate children's rights, women's rights, human rights. As CHP MPs we ask parliament to investigate child marriages," said Murat Bakan, a deputy from the main opposition party on Twitter.

In the city of Trabzon, female protesters staged a demonstration holding placards reading, “Stop exploitation of children!” while in Izmir, the banners proclaimed, “Child marriage is a crime.”

The legal marriage age in Turkey is 18, with exceptions for 17-year-olds with parental consent, and 16 year-olds with a court-issued permit.

Diyanet has taken down its original entry, clarifying that it “had never approved child marriages and never will” and insisting it was merely interpreting Islamic scriptures. It also emphasized that “consent” was a necessary condition of any union.

A nine year old cannot give consent!

But the outrage, which has included calls and a Twitter hashtag campaign for Diyanet to be shut down, highlights the long-running controversies of underage marriage and Islamization in Turkey.

An academic study last year, estimated that as many as one in three Turkish marriages involve a partner who is under 18. The vast majority of the children involved are women, who are disproportionately likely to be poor, illiterate, living in rural areas, and later subjected to abuse and exploitation.

As if they could give consent!!!

There is concern that in conjunction with November’s mufti law – in which the ruling Islamist AKP party allowed sanctioned clerics, rather than state officials, to register marriages – will legitimize traditional child bride unions, reversing decades of progress.

Meanwhile, Diyanet, which was once a secular watchdog that oversaw restrictions on religious proselytizing, has, according to its critics, morphed into a powerful propaganda tool for the Islamist government.

Erdogan is slowly, patiently tuning Turkey into his own Caliphate.

Its budget has ballooned under former PM and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It has attracted scorn for its published rulings, including a (later withdrawn) fatwa that stated a father can desire his daughter, and another, that said it was sufficient for a man to “see his wife as his mother or sister” to divorce her.