East Ukraine militants snub Geneva deal on crisis

[dipsydoodle]

11. That may be part of the background to this :

EU dumps gays, says Ukraine can have visa-free travel without “non-negotiable” LGBT non-discrim guarantee.

The European Union has reportedly, yet again, dropped its “non-negotiable” demand that a country adopt laws protecting its gay and trans citizens from discrimination, as a pre-requisite to visa free travel within the EU — this time, in Ukraine.

While Ukraine will move forward with passing the necessary non-discrimination law covering race and religion, gays and trans people (“sexual minorities”) have been dropped from the list of demands by the European Commission, according to reports coming from Ukraine today.

(UPDATE: The EU is denying the report. But I suspect that the Ukrainians let slip the truth, and the EU is now doing damage control over the obvious repercussions of staking out a decidedly anti-human-rights position in the middle of a major human rights crisis.)

Interestingly, part of the reason the EU demands such legislation is that it doesn’t want a flood of refugees when it adopts visa-free travel with a region that oppresses its own people.

http://americablog.com/2014/03/eu-dumps-gays-says-ukraine-can-visa-free-travel-without-non-negotiable-lgbt-non-discrim-guarantee.html