Croatia: the outcome of the constitutional referendum on marriage is a clear victory for common sense and human dignity – but the fight must continue

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D. | December 2, 2013

Although the turnout of voters was low, the outcome of the referendum held in Croatia yesterday is very clear: 66% voted in favour of the proposal to include in the country’s constitution a new provision that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Croatia will be the 6th EU Member State (after Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary) to provide for such a clarification at the level of constitutional law. Other countries might follow. Each country is important, as it can set a new obstacle to attempts, be it by law courts, parliaments or EU institutions, to wilfully re-define marriage and the family. People have come to understand that such manipulations affect them all: this is not about “the rights of a sexual minority”, but about all of us. It has to do with the question whether we accept the commodification of the human body with all its consequences (i.e., not only homosexual “marriages”, but also, by logical necessity, prostitution, pornography, and paedophilia), or whether we understand that this commodification of sex is a dangerous assault on human dignity.

The outcome of yesterday’s referendum is therefore an important and resounding victory for human dignity – not only in Croatia, but far beyond. And the fact that this victory was won against the declared will of the country’s political nomenklatura and mass media makes it all the more important: it has become evident that the homosexualist agenda is the agenda of a very small (but, alas, all too vociferous) minority.

As one had to expect, the triumph of common sense has sparked the anger and frustration of these powerful groups. There were a lot of negative comments both in Croatian and International Press.

Those who, by pointing at yesterday’s rather low voter turnout of roughly 38 of the electorate, try to downplay the significance of the result, should however be aware of two things: firstly, that the referendum was triggered by a citizens’ initiative that collected statements of support from more than 750.000 citizens in just two weeks, which is an incredibly high turnout for a country of just 4.2 million inhabitants (not all of which are allowed to vote) and, secondly, that yesterday’s referendum also was an occasion for all those who opposed the proposal to make their voices heard. Thus, if those voting in favour of the proposed amendment were just 25% of the electorate, it is also true that those opposing the amendment were just 13%. Which just proves that, despite relentless media campaigning, same-sex “marriages” have no appeal to normal people.

For the same reason, it makes no sense to say, as some international media do, that the country was “deeply split” over the referendum. In reality 60% of the population appear to have been rather indifferent, and among the rest there was a very clear majority in favour of the amendment.

Others say that the referendum was “unnecessary”, as there were no official government plans to legislate for same-sex “marriages”, and accuse the organiser’s of the citizens’ initiative that led to the referendum of “having wasted more than 50 million kuna for an unnecessary referendum”. This line of argumentation, which really looks like the sore losers’ desperate attempt to find a reason for criticism, is doubly disingenuous: firstly, because experience shows (it suffices to look at France, the UK, or Germany) that the introduction of “civil partnerships” for homosexuals often is just the first step towards introducing same-sex “marriages”, and secondly, because the country’s government, had it really wanted to avert the cost of organizing a referendum, could itself have easily averted it by endorsing the proposed constitutional amendment. Complaints about the high cost of a referendum on an important question like this are crocodiles’ tears, and only reveal the lack of democratic conviction of those proffering them.

Finally, there are those who, like Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, claim that “this referendum … gives a chance to the majority to strip a minority of its rights.”

This is of course nonsense, and a head of government should know better than making such childish, irresponsible statements.

Firstly, this was a referendum on what marriage is, not on who should be allowed, or not be allowed, to marry. Obviously, everybody who has reached the necessary age has the right to marry. Thus, there is no discrimination. The gay-rights-lobby has framed the issue in a very strange way, but in reality the problem is not that some people do not have the right to marry, but that a small but loud pressure group wants to re-define marriage.

Secondly, homosexual couples have never been able to marry. So, how can any serious-minded person claim that the proposed amendment will “strip a minority of its rights”?????

Such silly and distortive assertions, picking up and repeating the long-standing leitmotivs of homosexualist propaganda, are completely out of their place in the briefing book of anyone who wants to be perceived as a main-stream politician. They provide sad evidence of the stultification of political debate, the dishonesty with which the homosexualist lobby frames the agenda, and the intellectual laziness of the mass media who repeat and multiply such slogans without even one single word of criticism.

Even after yesterday’s victory, the defenders of human dignity must therefore remain vigilant. As a reaction to the referendum’s outcome, the government has a ready-made plan how to circumvent the new constitutional amendment, announcing a bill that would set homosexual partnerships on an equal footing with marriage in everything but the name.

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