Wednesday, November 18, 2020

More thoughts after feedback from friends about Welcome to Estonia.

S: The implementation of the cohabitation law got stuck partly because of polls saying that 75% of Estonians are against same-sex marriage. Many of those who had been advocating for the cohabitation law changed their mind when they realized that it will have negative effects for their popularity.

• June 2019 https://www.err.ee/950895/uuring-kooseluseaduse-vastased-on-vahemuses

• February 2012 https://www.err.ee/554882/uuring-enamik-eesti-elanikest-ei-toeta-samasoolistele-paaridele-vordsete-oiguste-andmist

L: seems true. I will need to review my article.

S: Is is correct to speak about a “repression” of “LGTBQ people”? There is no “people” and hence the term “repression” doesn’t apply. The term “LGTBQ” appeared first in 1996, it is less than a generation old. Being homosexual is very different from being transgender. Bisexuality is yet another topic.

Me: True.

S: Forming couples of a man and a woman and founding a family is a universal human right. Article 16 explicitly names the condition of having one man and one woman. There is no human right to form same-sex couples. These two rights would exclude each other. Every same-sex couple means (mathematically) two humans deprived of their right to marriage. You cannot grant them both. Refusing community protection of same-sex couples does not mean to deprive homosexuals of any human right. Why should LGBTQ people have more rights than other people?

Me: Logically correct, but doesn’t satisfy the problem of stigmatization. The UN itself is moving to a new version of its declaration that would remove this ambiguity, saying more explicitly that every adult has the right to marry and to found a family. See https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23927&LangID=E

S: The cohabitation law is just another name for same-sex marriage. If we accept this law, we will soon have to acknowledge that cohabitation is a second class marriage. The same voices will demand that the term of marriage realize that Accepting legal cohabitation opens the door into a direction we don’t want.

L: Yes, cohabitation is an intermediate step towards same-sex marriage. It is important to think until the end. Reality is of course bigger than we can imagine, so we never know whether we have reached the end. On the other hand history is directed. Christians believe that humanity evolves towards an ideal Kingdom of God. We may sometimes have the impression to step back, but every step is part of the long-term process.

S: Die anderen Parteien sind auch nicht besser als EKRE. Denen fehlt es genau so an “basic democratic skills”

L: Might be correct. But the deciding thing is what becomes visible in public. Any group of humans that doesn’t learn to dialogue with the outside world becomes sectarian and will extinguish sooner or later.