I am definetly not a neo-Con, but I think when one of the most basic freedoms (speech) is infringed upon it says something about the nation.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe...p?story=591175
France to punish homophobic and sexist remarks with jail sentences
By John Lichfield in Paris
09 December 2004
France moved yesterday towards the creation of a new law which would make sexist or homophobic comments illegal and forbid job discrimination against homosexuals.
After a muddled late-night debate, in which a number of governing-party deputies made starkly homophobic declarations, the National Assembly gave a second reading to a bill that would create a "high authority" to fight discrimination of all kinds. The bill, which will become law if approved unchanged by the Senate, the upper house, later this month, extends existing penalties for racist abuse to all insults made for reasons of "gender or sexual orientation or handicap".
If the bill is passed, anyone found guilty of making such remarks, verbally or in writing, would risk a one-year prison sentence and a fine of up ?45,000 (£31,000). The law, which would make penalties against homophobia and sexism stronger in France than almost any other EU nation, has been pushed very strongly by President Jacques Chirac.
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These same laws apply in many other European countries. And are not limited to these fields alone. Immigration, race, history (Holocaust, etc) are other fields that are now limited to only certain types of speech across much of Europe
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe...p?story=591175
France to punish homophobic and sexist remarks with jail sentences
By John Lichfield in Paris
09 December 2004
France moved yesterday towards the creation of a new law which would make sexist or homophobic comments illegal and forbid job discrimination against homosexuals.
After a muddled late-night debate, in which a number of governing-party deputies made starkly homophobic declarations, the National Assembly gave a second reading to a bill that would create a "high authority" to fight discrimination of all kinds. The bill, which will become law if approved unchanged by the Senate, the upper house, later this month, extends existing penalties for racist abuse to all insults made for reasons of "gender or sexual orientation or handicap".
If the bill is passed, anyone found guilty of making such remarks, verbally or in writing, would risk a one-year prison sentence and a fine of up ?45,000 (£31,000). The law, which would make penalties against homophobia and sexism stronger in France than almost any other EU nation, has been pushed very strongly by President Jacques Chirac.
---------------------------------------------------
These same laws apply in many other European countries. And are not limited to these fields alone. Immigration, race, history (Holocaust, etc) are other fields that are now limited to only certain types of speech across much of Europe
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