28 June 2023 – The Gender Equality Platform, the Network for Protection against Discrimination, and the National Network against Homophobia and Transphobia have strongly condemned the call for protest by the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MPC-OA), scheduled for 29 June, with the sole purpose of exerting public pressure for withdrawing the proposed Laws on Gender Equality and on Civil Registry from parliamentary procedure.
The Church’s meddling in these proposed legal solutions, with which continues the centuries-long fight for equality of women in Macedonia and which resolve the current issues with the ineffective system of gender equality promotion in the country, constitutes nothing other than direct incursion into the country’s secularity and disrespect for the Constitution, but most of all, for the women in the country, and failure to recognise their real-life situations. Men and women citizens of our country should know that the adoption of these laws will promote the civil rights and improve the equality of women and of the gender-based marginalised groups of fellow citizens. These are our citizens, men and women, who, contrary to the general belief, are unfortunately still unable to exercise their fundamental rights on an equal footing with the majority of people.
We want to underline that the fact that women and the gender-based marginalised groups of citizens in Macedonia will be able to enjoy their human rights and freedoms – to which, by the way, they are entitled! – can in no way harm the other citizens and families, or the society as a whole. These laws will guarantee the people who feel differently than their sex the right to self-determination, and will allow the women to have a better, safer and more prosperous life in all fields, by improving the institutional mechanisms. Without such laws, the EU will move even further away, the democracy will become even more jeopardised, and living in Macedonia unsafe for half of its population.
False and manipulative are the claims that these laws pose threat to the Macedonian tradition, our children and families, or that they deny one’s right to religion and religious expression. The MPC is not only calculating with the statistical data about the number of practicing believers in the country and brazenly casting to itself the role of their representative on political issues, but is also manipulating with the claims that these proposed laws were processed in “fast-track through all parliamentary filters”. The truth is that the Law on Civil Registry is in regular procedure, and the Law on Gender Equality has not at all entered the parliamentary procedure.
Although a frequently used strategy, fearmongering brings nothing good to anyone – on the contrary, it only enhances the threat and creates fertile ground for violence. Instead all of us, as citizens of this country, men and women, to seek to build a society where everyone can truly realise their rights, the MPC’s call for protests only additionally polarises the citizenship, turning a blind eye to the consequences such actions are highly likely to have for the life and safety of women and gender diverse people, as well as to the fight for a better life of women and of these marginalised groups.
This is exactly why we call upon all citizens, men and women, to not fall for the manipulative attempts of the MPC and of some other, seemingly concerned groups and associations, which have no grounds to claim that these legal arrangements pose threat to the local tradition and confession. We also call upon the Government to reiterate their commitment to the policies that promote gender equality and protect the fundamental right to life of the gender diverse people. Children, women and all those who are different by their gender and gender identity demand nothing more than their fundamental rights – so as to be able to live a full life, safely and in social wellbeing, and to be able to contribute to building a democratic society.
If we want to have a society which is truly equal for all, then there should be no room for hatred and violence in Macedonia. For these reasons, we call upon everyone who shares our views to support our reaction here.
