Off-colour jokes are still OK (AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI) |
Geneva (AFP) - Switzerland on Sunday voted strongly in favour of a new law against homophobia in a referendum in the face of strong opposition from the populist rightwing Swiss People's Party (SVP).
Final
results showed 63 percent voted in favour of widening existing laws against
discrimination on ethnic or religious grounds to include sexual orientation.
"This
is a historic day," Mathias Reynard, a lawmaker from the Social Democratic
Party of Switzerland who initiated the reform, told Swiss channel RTS 1.
"It
gives a signal which is magnificent for everyone and for anyone who has been a
victim of discrimination," he said.
With results
in from all of Switzerland's cantons, the figures showed that the highest
approval rate was in Geneva with 76 percent, while the rural cantons of
Appenzell Innerrhoden, Schwyz and Uri voted against.
The change
was passed by the Swiss parliament in 2018 but critics, who believe it will end
up censoring free speech, forced a referendum on the issue.
'Christian values'
Eric
Bertinat, an opposition SVP local lawmaker in Geneva, told AFP before the vote
that he believed the law was "part of an LGBT plan to slowly move towards
same-sex marriage and medically assisted reproduction" for gay couples.
Hans Moser,
head of the small Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) party, told the
ATS news agency: "We will continue to represent Christian values".
All of
Switzerland's major parties except the SVP, the biggest political force in
parliament, support the law.
Switzerland
is one of the last countries in western Europe without specific laws against
homophobia.
Rights
campaigner Jean-Pierre Sigrist, founder of an association of gay teachers, said
before the referendum that the new law might have stopped him getting beaten up
outside a bar in Geneva four decades ago.
"And
maybe I would not have been laughed at when I went to the police," the
71-year-old told AFP, adding that he hoped the reform would help to counter a
resurgence of intolerance against gay people.
Sigrist said
he supported freedom of expression, "but not the freedom to say anything
at all".
'No to
Special Rights!'
Under the
new law, homophobic comments made in a family setting or among friends would
not be criminalised.
But
publicly denigrating or discriminating against someone for being gay or
inciting hatred against that person in text, speech, images or gestures, would
be banned.
The
government has said it will still be possible to have opinionated debates on
issues such as same-sex marriage, and the new law does not ban jokes -- however
off-colour.
"Incitement
to hatred needs to reach a certain level of intensity in order to be considered
criminal in Switzerland," Alexandre Curchod, a media lawyer, told AFP.
But he
admitted that there could be exceptions "if it can be shown that, under
the cover of artistic production or joking, someone is in fact engaging in
incitement".
Gay rights
campaigners were divided over the legislation.
A group
called "No to Special Rights!" is opposed, arguing that the gay
community does not need special protection.
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