Next week the Slovak Parliament will start its new session and one of the legislative proposals registered for discussion is to amend the Constitutional definition of marriage to limit it exclusively to ‘a man and a woman’. This proposal has been submitted to the Parliament by the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in January 2014. Representatives of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SMER) including government ministers indicated there is enough support for such proposal. Therefore the possibility of Slovakia limiting the constitutional definition of marriage is real and serious. ILGA-Europe calls on Slovak parliamentarians to abandon this discriminatory and pointless proposal. Slovakia does not provide any legal recognition to same-sex couples. Gabi Calleja, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board, said: “We are very concerned to see Slovakia follow in this negative direction. Such amendments are discriminatory. Clearly they are not motivated by genuine care about families, but rather aimed to prevent recognition of rights and protection of same-sex partnerships in the near future. While Europe at large is moving towards increasing legal recognition and social acceptance of LGBTI families, Slovakia seems to be leaning towards the opposite trend of limitations, restrictions and discrimination.” Paulo Côrte-Real, Co-Chair of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board, added: “Recent and similarly restrictive constitutional amendments in Latvia, Hungary and Croatia demonstrated they are sponsored by religious extremists and ultra-conservatives who do not hesitate to abuse such democratic tools as constitutional amendments or referenda to pursue their narrow homophobic agenda. Slovak parliamentarians must prevent yet another country falling into such a populist homophobic trap and reject this proposal.” Source