LP - The Liberal Party

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The Liberal Party of Macedonia is a political party with liberal orientation that appears on the political scene in the Republic of Macedonia as a political heir of the Liberal Party. This party was founded on 23 December 1999 in Skopje.

In absence of the envisaged questionnaire, the subject of analysis in this case was the Program Declaration / Doctrine of LP - "Turning point 2018". The segment of this Program Declaration named as “MISSION” covers the rule of law that guarantees the exercise of human rights and freedoms. Hence, the Chapter 4 – “OPEN AND INTEGRATIVE SOCIETY” covers the freedom of choice of sexual orientation with emphasis on: “Overcoming the prejudices towards the LGBTI community and the violence towards the members of this marginalized group through an educational process that recognizes a modern, scientific, social and health definition instead of the one adopted five decades ago”, but also “The reluctance of the society for equalization of the traditional with the same sex marriage, hence they stress the need for consistency of the commitment for the purpose of achieving legislative regulation of the same sex partnership”

The main conclusions from responds to the questionnaire say that LP would:

• Support introduction of contents related to LGBTI issues as part of the existing subjects in the curriculum of the secondary schools with aim to increase the tolerance and social inclusion and reduce discrimination and violence against LGBTI persons;
• Will publically advocate for introduction of the term hate crime in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Macedonia, which among other would provide more rigid penalties for criminal offenses committed on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity;
• Will support introduction of sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics of the existing Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination;
• Will support an initiative for legislative amendments that would provide for change of gender in the official documents and ID papers for transgender persons;
• Has already proposed a Program declaration Doctrine “Turning point 2018“ amendment and supplements to the Law on Family, to regulate extramarital cohabitation with aim to introduce registered partnership of same sex couples;
• There are LGBTI persons in its candidate lists for the elections;

Do you count on the votes of LGBTI persons and why do you think they would support your political party and would vote for you?

Answer: First of all we do not make difference between a citizen and a member of the LGBTI community. Second, because everyone who does make that difference, actually puts the differences in the first place and runs away from the civil concept. Third, our proposal is clear. The answers to the above given questions give a clear picture about our stance on these issues. We have declared our proposals without expecting the elections. Forth, because our candidate lists already have persons who identified themselves as members of the LGBTI community.

You can download the questionnaire here.