Kiev - Gay and lesbian sex should be limited to a “small number of people,” Ukraine's parliament speaker said Wednesday in promoting a new bill aimed at curbing the lifestyle in the ex-Soviet country.
“I am a traditional man and I think that this glamorous phenomenon - when it becomes fashionable to demonstrate non-traditional relations - should be limited to the small number of people who live this way,” parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said.
“Society should not be subject to something that leads to debauchery and immorality,” he was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved in first reading the bill that bans the promotion of homosexual activity and imposes penalties of up to five years in jail.
Homophobia runs deep across large swathes of eastern Europe and has been especially prevalent in large cities in Russia such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg that have banned Gay Pride parades.
The region of Saint Petersburg was the first to impose a “homosexual propaganda” law this year and has since arrested same-sex couples for holding hands in public.
International gay rights groups have since organised a travel boycott campaign to the historic former tsarist imperial capital.
Ukraine's move has been condemned by Amnesty International and drew a call from the foreign ministry for an acknowledgement of the country's commitments to its international obligations on freedoms and rights. - Sapa-AFP