Romanians: 'No' to Homosexual 'Marriage'

"Marriage and the family are institutions, not a fad...Family and marriage predate the emergence of the state and of the phenomenon of homosexuality."

BUCHAREST (LifeSiteNews) - A pro-family organisation in Romania has asked the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to stop a proposed resolution demanding the legalisation of same-sex "marriage" in member states.

On June 21, the Alliance of Romania's Families wrote a letter to the PACE committee strongly condemning what it called the Assembly's "extremist" and "undemocratic" attempt to impose homosexual unions onto sovereign states by fiat.

The letter chastised the PACE, saying it had "simply thrown its weight behind the most extreme position," and is seeking to impose its political will on hundreds of millions of unwilling citizens of European member states.

While the PACE does not have direct legislative powers, its decisions and resolutions are immensely influential. PACE, founded in 1949, is the oldest of the European international organisations.

Earlier this year, a PACE committee proposed a resolution calling for legalisation of homosexual marriage in all its 47 member states. The committee debating the resolution considered disparate treatment of "same-sex couples" to be "unlawful discrimination" and urged that European countries aspire to be "tolerant, pluralist and broadminded."

It criticized central and eastern European countries such as Poland and Latvia for retaining statutes that reserve marriage exclusively for opposite-sex couples.

The Alliance's letter condemned the actions of the Assembly in the issue of same-sex marriage but also in its recent attempts to force agreement on legalised abortion and its condemnation of religious opinions on the origins of creation. The letter, however, says that in the attempt to force states to legalise homosexual relationships, the Committee has gone too far.

"Marriage and the family are institutions, not a fad," says the group that describes itself as a civic movement for the protection of marriage and the family.

"Institutions alone are enshrined in law, fads are not. Societies protect institutions, not fads. Family and marriage are not trivial matters but are designed to ensure society's survival and the perpetuation of the human species through procreation and the rearing of children."

"Homosexual partnerships, civil unions, or same-sex marriage do neither, and by their very nature are incapable to fulfil any of these objectives. Family and marriage predate the emergence of the state and of the phenomenon of homosexuality."

Romania does not recognise same-sex unions, either in the form of same-sex marriage or civil unions. On 13 February 2008, the Senate of Romania voted for an amendment to the Family Code, proposed by Greater Romania Party, to explicitly define marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

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Previously, the law had only used the words "between spouses". The amendment was approved with 38 votes for, 10 votes against and 19 senators abstaining.

The letter cites as proof that the same-sex marriage issue is a passing social trend, a fad, the fact that in 2006 and 2007, those countries that created "same-sex marriage" or civil partnerings, have experienced a significant drop in the number of same-sex unions contracted.

In 2007 only one same-sex "marriage" between Canadian citizens was performed in Toronto, a world centre of the homosexual activist movement.

"We believe and respectfully submit that the Council has overstepped its bounds and has set a slippery precedent which is alarming and worrisome to millions of Romanians," the letter went on.

The Alliance also condemned the PACE's actions as an affront to democratic principles. Citing the European Convention on Human Rights that says the right to marry is a matter of national sovereignty, the Alliance said that matters related to so fundamental an institution as marriage, "must be left to the discretion of each member state's citizens."

"The citizenry must be given an ample opportunity to discuss and debate these issues for itself and come up with solutions best suited and congruent with local cultural and religious sensitivities. PACE's contrary attempts ignore, discount, and necessarily violate these cultural and religious sensitivities. This is unacceptable."

"The citizens of Romania have not surrendered their sovereignty to any international body to define, dictate, and legislate their values and norms. On the contrary, in December 2006, 650,000 adult citizens of Romania submitted to their government a petition requesting that marriage be defined in law as the relationship between one man and one woman. Therefore, we respectfully, yet sternly, ask PACE to respect our norms and values."

The letter also cited the harm legal same-sex "marriage" does to the rights of children to be raised in natural families and the chilling effect it has on religious expression.

The letter concludes with a forthright statement of the Marxist origins of such ideas as same-sex "marriage".

"We are also mindful that the very concepts and institutions which PACE seeks to impose on the Member States find their origins in the teachings of the founders of communism, namely Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels."

"The elimination of the family and marriage, largely viewed by them as bourgeois institutions designed to oppress women, was one of their ultimate objectives. It is, therefore, to be noted, that PACE's actions are highly offensive to the hundreds of millions of citizens of the Member States who as recently as a generation ago lived under the tyranny of communism."

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