Offend a homosexual ... Go to prison for 5 years

[labguy22]

Has anyone else heard about this in Brazil?
" According to the CNA, the measure will force prison time for any "moral, ethical, philosophical or psychological expression that questions homosexual practices."

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?f...w&pageId=69775

[Nyshana]

These kind of things sit on fine lines...
Of course it's good to outlaw things like choosing not to employ someone because of homophobia, prejudiced teaching in schools, etc; but givernments seem to have a habit of taking it too far - not just with homophobia, but things like the religious hatred laws in the UK.

The legal system seems to be unable to make the distinction between an attack, be it verbal or anything else, and an expression of opinion. People don't have the right to discriminate, but they should have the right to disagree - if a preacher honestly believes that homosexuality is a sin, I think they should have the right to say so in their sermon.
When the new religious hatred laws were introduced in the UK, two people were arrested under them - they were Christians preaching in a public place, a Muslim took offense, and the two Christians were charged with incitement to religious hatred. They certainly weren't attacking anyone, nor attempting to offend anyone; and I've yet to see any PC law that isn't open to that kind of abuse, including this one.

[keltic63]

I haven't read about that one, but the source is questionable. I'd be willing to bet that the law doesn't do what worldnetdaily is claiming it will do.

[andrewlittle]

The WorldNetDaily quotes the Catholic News Agency (CNA). CNA quotes the Association of the Defense of Life (ADL).

I can find no reference to this group using ADL, and searching on the whole name only brings up 125 hits for various blogs and conservative sites (like conservativesforum.com, freerepublic.com, jihadchat.com, etc) - each and every one of them are quoting either the WorldNetDaily or CNA articles, or both. Every one of them reference this ADL, but there is no source I can find for the group.

Sounds like circular referencing, to me.

Wait a minute (he says a few minutes later), I check for Asociacion en Defensa de la Vida, thinking it might be a predominantly latin American organization. Well, whammo - now the hits roll in. There are a variety of them for different countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc) and with slightly different names, but they are pro-family, anti-abortion, anti-gay and "other deplorable" sins. These groups generally go by acronyms like ADEVIDA and such, and I have yet to find one that goes by ADL.

[Matt Algren]

Originally Posted by andrewlittle

The WorldNetDaily quotes the Catholic News Agency (CNA). CNA quotes the Association of the Defense of Life (ADL).

I can find no reference to this group using ADL, and searching on the whole name only brings up 125 hits for various blogs and conservative sites (like conservativesforum.com, freerepublic.com, jihadchat.com, etc) - each and every one of them are quoting either the WorldNetDaily or CNA articles, or both. Every one of them reference this ADL, but there is no source I can find for the group.

Sounds like circular referencing, to me.

Wait a minute (he says a few minutes later), I check for Asociacion en Defensa de la Vida, thinking it might be a predominantly latin American organization. Well, whammo - now the hits roll in. There are a variety of them for different countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc) and with slightly different names, but they are pro-family, anti-abortion, anti-gay and "other deplorable" sins. These groups generally go by acronyms like ADEVIDA and such, and I have yet to find one that goes by ADL.

On a hunch I looked for Association FOR the Defense of Life, and found a Nicaraguan operation "Association for the Defense of Life", which tranlates as "Asociacion Nicaraguense en Defensa de la Vida" or ANPROVIDA, as well as one from Costa Rica (ADEVI) and one in Brazil. That's when the language barrier hit, but maybe that could give you something to work from.

All of them seemed to be strictly pro-life groups, so I don't know why they'd be commenting on this law.

edit: Found this site, which offers an English version. It's a branch of Human Life International and has a whole section on the 'homosexual problem'. That page includes an article by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH (which I won't link to), which is closely lined to the Family Research Institute, which is in turn closely linked to Focus on the Family.

At the same time, HLI attempted to distance themselves from anything written in the articles provided, but offers a link page found here. Within that link page are links to NARTH, the Family Research Institute, the Culture and Family Institute, Mission America, and "Courage", a Catholic ex-gay nonsense group (that has a totally hot guy in their header. But I digress.).

What does that have to do with this article? I still haven't found the CNA article referenced by WND, but the name Association for the Defense of Life is pretty heavily used by other Catholic anti-gay groups.

...and now I see that you amended your post after I started digging. ::sigh::

[kara speltz]

Originally Posted by keltic63

I haven't read about that one, but the source is questionable. I'd be willing to bet that the law doesn't do what worldnetdaily is claiming it will do.

This sounds like the same garbage distributed by the religious right around ENDA where they claimed that pastors wouldn't be able to preach a gospel against homosexuality without going to prison, and it was all hogwash - deliberate lies that would provoke an outcry.

kara

[RedneckDyke]

hey, if it's on World Net Daily it's gotta be true!

[Emproph]

World Net Daily is notorious for suggesting that the implementation and/or enforcement of hate speech laws in other countries will somehow lead to the destruction of the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech in this country.

As Religious Tolerance notes on their Laws restricting hate speech page:

Some countries, like the U.S., guarantee nearly complete freedom of speech to everyone. A person is not permitted to falsely yell "fire" in a crowded theatre. They cannot threaten to assassinate the President. But they can normally express hatred against persons of any race, religion, sexual orientation, sex, etc. with impunity. They can even advocate genocide against another religious group, as two fundamentalist Christian pastors have in Texas.

Other countries like the UK, some of its former colonies like Canada and Australia, and many counties in Europe restrict freedom of speech. Canada, for example, has had a hate propaganda law in its federal criminal code for many years. In 2003 -- against strong opposition by conservative Christians -- Parliament and the Senate passed Bill 250 which added sexual orientation as an additional protected class to the existing law.

I think Nyshana covered the pith of it (BTW welcome!), abuses are possible, even in this country, but one always has to take into consideration the laws of the country in question -- especially when it comes to mouthpieces like WND who are never ending in their alarmist shrieks of persecution.

I don’t know how this will play out in Brazil, but WND and like sources will stop at nothing to seek out quotes that make their rabid hatred for gays sound like sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. This one is no exception:

According to the CNA, the measure will force prison time for any "moral, ethical, philosophical or psychological expression that questions homosexual practices."

You pretty much need a salt mine at your disposal to read through those articles with any sense of objectivity.

[livewithsoulandfreedom]

well it was nice to hear someone call the homophobes intrinsically disordered as opposed to hearing homosexuals being called that...

whether or not the people actually said these things is another conversation...

[RaymondCharlesWoollcombe]

Yeah the homophobes are getting there pay back.
Its about time as well. Not trying to be mean but they seriously need to stop bashing homosexuals.
We arent infected with some sickness that they can get. Sheesh.


Peace and Love
Raymond...

[sawyer]

There is a similar law in Sweden. A few years ago in Sweden, a fundie pastor named Oke Green, got prison time for talking offensive toward homosexuals in a public forum. They don't have freedom of speech there. Here those sort of laws would be deemed unconstitutional.

[u-dog]

Originally Posted by sawyer

There is a similar law in Sweden. A few years ago in Sweden, a fundie pastor named Oke Green, got prison time for talking offensive toward homosexuals in a public forum. They don't have freedom of speech there. Here those sort of laws would be deemed unconstitutional.

No, Sawyer, Rev Green DID NOT SERVE TIME IN PRISON. He was acquitted on appeal and never spent in single minute in prison. The lie that he did is spread by evangelical conservative anti-gay forces to scare Americans into opposing hate crime legislation that would protect GLBT people.

Please check your facts before you repeat bull***t you read on the internet.

[sawyer]

I checked the facts and he was sentenced in 2003 but that was overturned by the appeals court in 2005. Apparently they do have freedom of expression rights but I dont know if they are as strong as in USA.