The parliament of Croatia moved to hold
a referendum on whether to ban gay marriage.
Voters will decide the issue on
December 1.
If a majority agreed that “marriage
is matrimony between a man and a woman,” then Croatia's
constitution will be amended to define marriage as a heterosexual
union.
The ballot question won the support of
two-thirds of the members of parliament in Croatia.
A petition in support of amending the
constitution has received more than 700,000 signatures and was
organized by the Catholic group In the Name of the Family.
Croatian President Ivo Josipovic has
come out against the measure.
“The question is: Do we need this
kind of a referendum? I think that determining marriage between a
man add a woman does not belong in the constitution. A nation is
judged by its attitude toward minorities,” Josipovic is quoted as
saying by the
AP.
Human rights groups opposed to the
referendum as an infringement of basic human rights said they would
file an appeal with the country's constitutional court.