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Ukrainian MPs want ban on state support for LGBT films

04-01-2022

Eastern Europe

CNE.news

The Verkhovna Radathe, the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev. Photo AFP, Sergei Supinsky

A group of 41 deputies in the Ukrainian Parliament have submitted a draft resolution on abolishing funding for an LGBT film and forming criteria for adequate public funds. So reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ).

The reason for the draft resolution is the financial support that the State Committee for Cinematography of Ukraine is giving to the first Ukrainian film about gays entitled "My Young Prince". The film, which blasphemously uses Christian symbolism and distorts "Our Father" prayer, features a 17-year-old teenager. The premiere is scheduled for July 2022, the UOJ earlier wrote.

The text of the "draft resolution on the appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers and other state authorities on the abolition of state support for the production of certain films for the protection of public morality" is posted on the parliament's website. The draft involves the withdrawal of state funding of 20 million hryvnias (645,000 euros) and monitoring the actions of the State Film Agency. In particular, regarding compliance with, among others, the law "On the Protection of Public Morality".

The MPs also propose developing criteria for the effective use of public funds for cinema to prevent similar cases in the future.

Call for prosecution

"In a society in which about 67 per cent of citizens are Christians, the plot of the film, which features an explicit homosexual context of the film using biblical themes, caused outrage. We are not against creativity, but are such products of creativity included in the priorities of the state in the current situation in the country?" noted on Telegram one of the initiators of the resolution, Alexander Kachura.

Earlier, sixty deputies of the Verkhovna Rada called on Ukrainian president Zelensky to cancel public funding for an LGBT film. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches appealed to the President, Prime Minister and State Film Agency and the public union "Miriane" submitted a petition to the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the prosecution of officials from the State Film Agency.

Pervert

In October, the vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis and head of the Representation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to European international organizations, Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshevka, also spoke out against the state-funded Ukrainian film about gays.

The Bishop wrote that the movie about gays, "which will be filmed by the citizens of our country and for the money of the citizens of our country," raises several questions, "the main of which is the following: can the state find another use for 20 million hryvnias?"

He noted that "the attempt of the creators of the 'modern' film industry to play on symbols sacred to Christians is another confirmation of the fact that the greatest creations of human genius are associated with faith in God".

"Satan, like the ape of the Creator, cannot create anything – he can only pervert what was not created by him," resumed Bishop Victor.

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