Swiss Review 6/2019

Swiss Review / November 2019 / No.6 24 Politics THEODORA PETER Homosexual couples have been out and proud in Switzer- land for some time now. Same sex love is widely accepted by society. Nevertheless, gays and lesbians repeatedly ex- perience hostility and even violent attacks. For example, the media reported a case where a homosexual couple were beaten up by a group of young men and called “fag- gots” and “freaks” late at night in themiddle of Zurich. By its own account, the organisation Pink Cross receives up to four reports of homophobic attacks per week. There are no statistics about crimes on the basis of the victims’ sex- ual orientation in Switzerland. Furthermore, many at- tacks go unreported because the victims decide not to go to the police. Collective violations of personal honour are no grounds for legal action Anyone who sows hate against homosexuals can only re- ceive a suspended sentence. Any person who personally suffers verbal abuse can lodge a complaint on the grounds of defamation or slander. However, the violation of per- sonal honour article in criminal law does not apply if an entire group, such as homosexuals or lesbians, is affected by verbal abuse. For this reason, a local Appenzeller pol- itician of the extreme-right PNOS (Swiss Nationalist Party) was able to label homosexuals as “demographic de- serters”, insinuate that they are capable of “doing pioneer work for paedophiles”, and propagate the “Russian solu- tion” (in Russia, homosexuals and lesbians are subjected to reprisals) with impunity on Facebook. A collective criminal complaint by Pink Cross for violation of personal honour was unsuccessful. The public prosecutor halted the legal proceedings as there was no legal ba- sis. Valais SP National Councillor Mathias Rey- nardwould like to close this loophole in criminal lawby extending the anti-racismprovision to in- clude sexual orientation. “Homophobia is not an expression of opinion and should be recognised as an offence just like racism or anti-Semitism,” argues Reynard. The anti-racism provision, which protects people from verbal abuse on the grounds of their race, ethnicity or religion, has been in force since 1995. In 2013, Reynard started a parliamentary initi- ativewith the demand to extenddiscriminationprotection to the category of “sexual orientation”. The national coun- cillor received strong support fromhis colleagues for doing so. The National Council evenwanted to take it further and include the criterion of “sexual identity” in the provision to protect homosexuals and lesbians as well as bisexuals and transgender people (LGBT) fromhate crime. However, that was a step too far for the Council of States. It said “sexual identity”was not clearly tangible, which could lead to inter- pretation issues. Finally, the two chambers agreed on an ex- tension of the anti-racism provision to include “sexual ori- entation”. Christian-conservative opposition to “censure law” Liberal judges in Parliament were fundamentally scepti- cal about additional bans on discrimination. Appenzell FDP Federal Councillor Andrea Caroni pointed out that criminal law is “too big a stick” for such cases. He invoked freedom of expression and warned against criminalising discrimination on the grounds of language, nationality or sex. “It will never end”. The “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” also warned against new bans in a commentary, and called for people to stop homophobes with civil courage and clear language. There has been fundamental opposition to the exten- sion of the anti-racism provision to homosexuals and les- bians from the Christian Conservative Party EDU, the Young SVP and the Youth and Familyworking group. A joint committee collected 67,500 valid signatures for a referen- dum entitled “No to the Censure Law”. So, the submission will now be put to the voters for a decision on 9 February 2020. Opponents criticise what they see as a disproportion- ate restriction on freedom of conscience. EDU President Hans Moser fears that pastors will attract the attention of the justice system in the future “when they cite biblical truths”. For many free churches, same-sex love is incom- patible with a life according to the tenets of the Bible. Crit- ical public examination of homosexuality must remain a “legitimate position”, writes the committee. Opinions Using criminal law to fight homophobia Switzerland has had an anti-racism provision for the last 25 years. It protects people against verbal abuse on the grounds of their race, ethnicity or religion. Whether this protection from discrimination should also apply to lesbians and homosexuals in the future will be decided by voters on 9 February 2020. “Homophobia is not an expression of opin- ion,” says SP Nation- al Councillor Mathias Reynard, who submit- ted an initiative to change the law.