Gays Make Strides Toward Acceptance by The System

It would be enough to make the gay-shy U.S. military brass throw a fit. Not only do Czech military spokesmen say that homosexual soldiers are accepted, but plans are in the works to distribute on a one-time basis copies of the gay magazine SOHO, in order to foster AIDS education and to help the army's homosexual contingent.

"Homosexuality is an individual matter of sexual orientation," said Capt. Oldrich Holecek, a spokesman for the Czech Ministry of Defense. "Homosexuals are tolerated as long as their behavior does not lead to misconduct or committing a crime."

This is not to say that the Czech military is a bastion of enlightened liberalism. Many officers still see homosexuality as "incompatible" with military service, says Holecek, and gays have been thrown out due to their HIV-positive status. But, he asserts, "there is no such thing as discharging soldiers because of their sexual orientation."

When it comes to dealing with the system - not just the military but also the police, the courts, and the legislature - homosexuals in the Czech Republic haven't had it all that bad. Certainly not as bad as their brethren elsewhere in the former Soviet bloc, whose fate was often jail terms and mental hospitals. Even in the United States sodomy is still a crime and gay bashing, both by politicians and common hooligans, is practically a sport.

"Homophobia actually doesn't exist in this country," says Jiri Hromada, head of the Association of Organizations of Homosexual Citizens (SOHO), largely because "for 40 years people had no information about homosexuals."

Under the old regime, institutionalized discrimination against gays was virtually non-existent, but occurred covertly. Gay sex was legalized by the Communist regime in 1961, though authorities often used 244 of the Czechoslovak criminal code to repress homosexuals and political dissidents alike. Paragraph 244 made it a crime - punishable by a two- to five-year jail term - to have sexual relations with same-sex partners under age 18, in public places, or "under duress." This last point could be construed to mean anything from forcible intercourse to paid prostitution to one partner giving a gift to another.

The police also compiled so-called "pink lists" of gay men, allegedly for their own protection, but in practice used the lists for political reasons (Prague Police Maj. Petr Vosolsobe protests that such practices were employed only by the state secret police). In 1990, the new federal parliament abolished paragraph 244 and set the age of sexual consent for gays at 15, the same as it had been for heterosexuals.

The Ministry of the Interior subsequently sent SOHO a letter of assurance that the pink lists were no more. Hromada says he is not completely convinced, but he does concede that police have largely stopped trying to intimidate homosexuals. "[They have] started behaving toward gay citizens in a different way," Hromada says. "Their attitude will never be exactly the same as toward other citizens, but it is better."

When it comes to the courts, family law, and the political system, the picture is mixed. Although current Czech law makes no specific mention of homosexuals, they are still affected by discrimination incidental to the system. SOHO's primary political focus is on reforming the republic's civil code and family law to alleviate some of these legal disadvantages.

"The laws we have here about taxes, insurance, pensions, and so forth are already quite good for homosexual couples," says civil attorney Petr Kodl, explaining that unlike in other countries, the Czech Republic laws do not bestow any special advantages on heterosexual marriages. "It's not necessary to change [these laws]. The biggest problem now among homosexuals in the Czech Republic is inheritance."

Currently, the surviving member of a gay couple can legally inherit his deceased partner's property if they had been cohabiting for at least three years, but the situation is complicated by the priority given to ex-wives, parents, and children of the deceased. The existence of an unambiguous, clearly valid will simplifies these complications, but for the benefit of those homosexuals without a will SOHO is seeking to amend the country's family law to give surviving partners equal rights to other family members in settling estates. The organization will soon propose a law on registered domestic partnerships, similar to one enacted in Denmark last year. "It would be not only for the gay community," says Hromada, "but for everyone who is not legally married" but living with another person in a domestic union.

The Czech Republic's apparent obsession with becoming a member of the European Community may also have aided the demands of homosexuals. Hromada believes that the national legislature "is very forthcoming toward homosexual issues." One reason he cites is the government's willingness to improve the civil and human rights climate for all Czech citizens in order to meet EC standards, which require adherence to legal conventions that include discussion of sexual minorities.

A spokeswoman for the ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS) declined to comment on the party's positions on gay issues. But Hromada is confident that the registered partnership proposal, which he expects will be presented to a parliamentary committee in October, will be enacted in 1994 at the latest. Dr. Jaroslav Zverina, a sexologist who was elected with SOHO's backing as an ODS member in the last federal parliament, predicts that "there will not be any great resistance from any political party."

Hromada and other gay activists say they expect their low-key, persistent approach to bring a year of gains on all institutional fronts in the Czech Republic.