Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 10:29:27 +0100 (NFT) From: Bj|rn Skolander Zagreb, March 8th, 1995 - International Women's Day WHAT CROATION POLITICIANS THINKS OF FREEDOM OF SEXUAL CHOICE! At the initiative of Women's Infoteka (Women's Information Center), Croatian women's groups: Women's Autonomous House, women of the Anti-war Campaign of Croatia, Center for women - war victims, B.a.b.e. and the Zagreb Women's Lobby organized a public dialogue with the representatives of the Croatian parliament in order to celebrate the International Women's day which has not been celebrated in Croatia since the fall of communism. The list of questions asked to the Croatian Parliament representatives contained questions like: 1. What do you think about the equal number of women and men in the Parliament? 2. What do you think about the right of women to have the freedom of choice in planning her family? 3. What is your position on a referendum on abortion that would be held for women? The list also included a gay and lesbian related question: 4. What do you think about the freedom of sexual choice? According to a report by the Women's Information Center in Zagreb the question about freedom of sexual choice gave rise to some unexpected answers: "It is hard to describe all the fun moments but one of them sticks out because it shows the gap that exists between us here, in the Balkans and Europe, a gap regarding the understanding of the most basic concepts. The question that was asked was about the freedom of sexual choice. Only two or three representatives (Radin, Kovacevic, Opacic) understood what the question was referring to, that is heterosexual or homosexual choice. The others thought we were talking about the right to choose your own partner instead of your parents doing it for you. It was very amusing listening to all the conservative representatives, including those from the ruling HDZ, approving that right "absolutely". At least we can say that everyone agrees in the Croatia that gays and lesbians should have all the rights (!)." The report continues: "Both men and women representatives were relatively nice, some more than the others. They tried to answer our questions and but they were not too good at it. Nevertheless, they should be praised for showing the will to try and please us. In a democratic way, the representatives were both applauded and hissed down for their answers. This is, after all, a learning method and we promised to educate them in this way again next year." Edited by Bjorn (bjorn.skolander@nordiska.uu.se) from a report on soc.culture.croatia