February 7th, 2015.Sitting with my friend at a vegan restaurant in Warsaw, I recap those24 months between 2012 and 2014 when I lived in Slovakia. I moved forlove and research. Both ended, leaving me richer for knowledge and experience in social sciences and what we currently consider ‘life’. Romantic reminiscing does not come without context. It is the day of the national referendum, deemed by human rights experts as ‘an exercise in how far can lack of common sense go’.
Last Saturday Slovakia’s citizens were supposed to decide on three social issues, which, as properly described by a number of legal advisors, should not ever be considered referendum-worthy. The questions posed were as follows:
- Do you agree that the word marriage should not mean any other form of a relationship than that of one man and one woman?1
- Do you agree that couples or groups of same-sex persons should not have the possibility to adopt and raise a child?
- Do you agree that schools should not force children to attend courses where sexual behaviors or euthanasia are discussed, when the parents or kids themselves do not agree with the content of these courses?
As it is to be expected, the main force behind the questions was (and still is to some extent) a self-proclaimed christian group “Alliance for the Family”, which, as I was informed by friends in Slovakia, consists of organizations created directly by the catholic Church. With groups like these I usually use the phrase “self-proclaimed christian”, because even though I’m an atheist, I did read the Bible on a number of occasions in my life and can definitely say that Jesus Christ did not advocate for anything that these groups tend to push as their religious agenda. With Slovakia’s referendum, it’s even worse. The agenda was not pushed as religious per se, it was framed as the best interest of the nation, something every citizen (although preferably straight, cis and white) should be concerned about.
On Saturday, we learned that this crucial, most important and absolutely necessary referendum that would apparently prevent upcoming change of society and keep the nation free of enemy ideology2 was supported by a whopping 21,41% of the nation of which 94,5% answered “yes” to the first question, 92,43% supported the second question and 90,32% confirmed that they do not want state-forced sex-ed (which, by the way, is almost non-existent in Slovakia anyway)3. In other words, this social endeavor (costing 6,5 million euros of tax payers money and more than 2,5 million euros in “Alliance for the Family” pro-referendum campaign), aimed to become a firm voice of neoconservatism, proved what was obvious from the start. It’s not the general population who targets same-gender unions, diverse families and sex-ed. It is a loud and nosy minority.
Let’s be honest though, these numbers do not exactly show that Slovakia’s citizens are all welcoming to relationship, parental and educational diversity. What they are is a strong diagnosis of a country where even the most heteronormative referendum does not receive enough votes to pass. And why is that? Because Slovaks, like other nations in Central and Easter Europe, stopped caring. You can see this when looking at statistics of other referenda. In 2010 a referendum aimed to change a number of issues with the Slovak Parliament ended up with 22,84% of votes cast, which is still over 1,4% more than this year’s voting. In 2004 – 35,86% participants and, finally, in 2003 the referendum to join the EU concluded with 52,15% attending. (In comparison, in Poland a similar initiative took place the same year with 58,85% casting their vote and it was the last state-wide referendum to date).
What may be frightening for those who campaigned for the referendum to pass, is that even these issues did not convince a simple majority to leave their homes to cast a vote. This put “Alliance for the Family” in jeopardy. Claiming to represent “a healthy majority”, it was them who found themselves in a minority position. Neither big budgets nor big names helped the initiative. Whatever “family” the Alliance represented, it wasn’t the everyday Slovak family. Reading media coverage of the issue and searching trough Facebook I found a few comments by different people who have underlined where they think lies “the family problem”.
What is “destruction of family” that is being so strongly pushed by neoconservative agenda and why should it be connected to broadening of its terminology. Shouldn’t alcohol consumption, violence (physical, psychological, economic and sexual!), harassment, denying of resources, economic crisis, governments not willing to cut back on their own expenses be first to blame? Shouldn’t the families be protected from the inside? It is not just trust and love that need to be there. It is commitment, it is a basic understanding of what it needs to care for one another and the fact that when a problem occurs, one needs to deal with it on their own, with a help from a professional (individual or institution) but not blame it on any other groups.
For a brief moment, a minority ruled the whole nation. It had its commercial on the radio (TV outlets denied to stream them), in newspapers and even on receipts. Contrary to usual campaigns (especially those aimed to shed some light on an important, yet invisible issue), this one was filled with allegations, misinformation, misconception and lies4. And the people didn’t like it. Not one bit. Both online and offline anti-campaign(s), websites, Facebook pages, avatars popped up, creating a sense of community. An actual opposition. Although I was physically not present in Slovakia, I could feel the energy of those openly stating that they will not go vote. “Nejdem” (“I’m not going”) became my favorite word for a few weeks. More and more Facebook friends changed their avatars to show that they will not even think about casting a vote when human rights were at stake.
I dare to think that the anti-campaign had to do something with the final result, it not only brings hope to our European struggle with neoconservatism, it gives us back our dignity. Dignity that we have lost numerously, trying to convince others that we have human rights and are, therefore, human.
Still waiting for that 6,5 million euros bill to be sent to “Aliancia za rodinu”, though. You wanted it, now you can also pay for it.
1 I always wondered whether christian organizations endorsing these kinds of referenda actually realize that they could be endorsing relationships of bisexuals, but I guess they come from the same understanding of bisexuality as a number of LGTI people, where a fact of being in a different-gender relationship makes it already a “straight” relationship. A little hint, it doesn’t.
2 This is not a joke, Slovakia (along with Poland) was one of those Central European countries where the “gender ideology” discourse promoted by the catholic Church and the Vatican became part of general discussions among the public. Today, this incredible shift results in hilarious academic situations, when one tries to explain the subject of gender studies to their students, which in reality means to explain why these are actually studies and NOT an ideology.
3 You can check the numbers in the Slovak Wikipedia article about the referendum – http://sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendum_na_Slovensku_v_roku_2015.
4 And a picture of a baby. You may find it cute, I find it incredibly disturbing and wrong.
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