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Dear Members of the European Parliament,
Tomorrow, March 12, 2013, you will be required to vote on a report concerning the removal of sexual identity preconceptions in the European Union. I use this name instead of its official name for the simple reason that the IT department of the European Parliament decided to block the e-mails coming from concerned citizens regarding this issue. This alone should ring a bell about the fact that this report is fishy, to put it mildly.
This report sounds admirable by its title, but I, and the A Voice for Men organization that I represent in Europe, urge you to vote against it.
First of all, the articles 14 and 17 in the report call for a complete ban of sexually explicit material in “all forms of media” and it makes it clear that this includes the only media venue left free – the Internet. In other words, it applies to any kind of erotic material – text, images, sounds – and not just the commercial kind. This is a political invasion of adult people’s bedrooms – adult voters’ bedrooms – that goes far beyond the tolerable. If consenting adults choose to share erotic material with one another, this is not a matter that politicians have any kind of say about.
Secondly, article 53 of the aforementioned report calls for the Member States to make combating violence against women a priority in the penal policy. This sounds great, until someone asks – and eventually people will ask – over whom this priority shall be made? Considering that violence against women is the rarest form of violence in Europe, and considering that sexual identity equality is one of the core values of the EU – it is redundant to treat one group better over the other. Even in domestic violence situations, half of the victims are men.
The resolution appears to be completely detached from reality when dealing with the education systems that are apparently limiting girls’ “full potential”. We’re talking about a European Union which has, as a whole, an education system where the share of female teachers spans from 100% in the primary school to 70-80% in secondary school, and where boys represent 60% of school drop-outs, while manifesting serious learning issues, far outpacing girls only in the suicide rate (80%). We have an education framework where 60% of degrees are achieved by women. How is it possible to see female issues in such a female orientated and favorable environment that is creating underachieving boys? This report itself is promoting preconceptions on the basis of sexual identity.
What happened with the basic principles of the European Union? Former communist nations have adhered to this block in order to move away from totalitarian attitudes, not to start it all over with censorship and bans all over the place.
And if that was not enough, this proposal ends in violating at least one article of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and at least 3 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
While there may be good parts in the report (for instance combating the advertising of sexual tourism), as a whole, this report is not compatible with fundamental rights and freedoms in a democratic society. Censoring the Internet to appease certain ideologues and transforming the EU into a sort of China or Iran is not progress – it’s state authoritarianism. We the people want more freedom, not less.
Considering that you might want to participate in the next round of European elections, I therefore urge you to reject it and inform your colleagues of this attempted deception.
Sincerely,
Lucian Vâlsan – Romanian citizen
European News Director, A Voice for Men
Note: I used “sexual identity preconceptions” instead of “gender stereotypes” because the Stalinists from the IT department of the European Parliament decided to block all the e-mails coming from the citizens containing the words “gender” and “stereotype(s)”. I suggest other MRAs who might want to make their voice heard by the European Parliament to do the same.
The address where this letter was sent is: europarl-all-mar2013@falkvinge.net (a service provided by the founder of the Pirate Party of Sweden (Piratpartiet) which automatically forwards the e-mail to all the 750 MEPs.
Special thanks to the AVFM readers napocapo69 and paddybrown. Some parts of their letter models were used.
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To the European Parliament
