Szaras marriage referendum

From the Other Universe
Jump to navigationJump to search
Szaras marriage-referendum, 1897
Electorate 677,331
Turnout (73.44%) 497,432
Do you support a legalization of
same-sex marriages in the Province of
Szaras by the Parliament of Szaras?
Voting options Votes %
✔ Yes 279,557 56.20
✘ No 214,841 43.19
Invalid votes 3,034 0.61
Source: Szaras Provincial Government

On 22 July, 1897, voters in the Province of Szaras in the Kryfona Kingdom went to the polls to vote on a binding referendum which would legalize same-sex marriages in the province, and recognize same-sex marriages done in it subsequently. This binding referendum was the first of its kind in Szaras, and one of only a few such referendums in the history of the Kryfona Kingdom at any level. Owing to its significance in the LGBT community of the Kryfona Kingdom, the Szaras marriage referendum is considered a cornerstone for LGBT rights in the Kryfona Kingdom, and is likewise considered to mark the beginning of the modern fight surrounding it.

At the time of the referendum, same-sex marriages were becoming more palatable to the Kryfona public. Where just a decade before, about 53% of all Kryfona were opposed to it, by the time of the referendum, there was a plurality of support for the matter in the public at large. Szaras, then one of the most liberal provinces in the Kingdom, was ground zero for the rights struggle, and for much of that year the Parliament of Szaras had debated passing legislation that would enable the legalization of same-sex marriages. Although there was significant opposition to this proposal from the Szaras Royalists, as well as a number of their satellite organizations, Szaras was "home" territory for the LGBT rights movement in the Kryfona Kingdom, and a majority of the Szaras population supported legalization. After significant pressure throughout the year by the Isene and Sargozina societies–the two largest LGBT organizations in the Kingdom–to call a referendum, Governor Vezsysen Jainazs of Szaras finally ordered on 20 June, 1897 that a binding referendum on the matter be held.

Due to delays, the referendum, which had been scheduled for a month after the order, was actually held on 22 July, 1897 and, despite the opposition, ultimately passed by a margin of 56-43. The Parliament of Szaras subsequently crafted legislation on the matter, and passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the province of Szaras on 29 July, 1897. Szaras Province thus became the first division of any kind in both the Old and New Worlds to legalize same-sex marriage, and one of just two provinces to legalize it before the Marriage Amendment of 1900 did so in the entire Kingdom.

Background

Homosexuality in the 20th-century Kingdom

Prior to the 1870s, homosexuality in the Kryfona Kingdom was seen as an unnatural, un-Kryfonic, and wholly undesirable feature. The earliest recorded polling on the matter, done by the Nylzsryfa paper in 1822, found that about 86% of all Kryfona thought that homosexuality was an affront to Kryfona society, and of those 86%, most preferred homosexuality to be entirely stamped out. At the time, homosexuality in all capacities was illegal in the Kryfona Kingdom; what would be termed as sodomy laws in modern times had been established by King Ssomiz Lweskija in 1640. It was not legal for any sort of same-sex activity to take place (under punishment of life imprisonment and chemical castration among other things)[note 1] regardless of where it took place, and in certain time periods this was enforced more harshly.

In the early 1800s, the Kingdom was going through a period in which there was a great crackdown on homosexual activity, particularly activity suspected among government and provincial officials. Ostensibly, this crackdown was in response to the apparent establishment of the Isene Society, a semi-anonymous group by and for the homosexual (and to a lesser extent, bisexual) Kryfona throughout the Kingdom. In truth, the Isene Society had first been established in 1798; however, it did not come to the attention of the government until the beginning of the 1800s. Under the largely-uncaring eye of King Trenjiasov Mikoszaakide, the internal forces of the Kryfona government and in particular the "temporary" Kryfona Cabinet of Anti-Homosexuality began enacting purges of suspected or "known" homosexuals, and later bisexuals within the government. The Isene society, for its part, was also legislated into the underground by the Kryfonsparliszaiye in 1809, when a broad coalition of Royalist and Loyalist legislators enacted the Homosexuality Prevention and Regulation Act, which banned such groups.

By the year 1820, it was estimated that over a thousand people had lost their jobs in the government or in provincial governments because of their suspected or confirmed homosexuality. The tides by 1820 had begun to turn slightly, with a little under 75% of all Kryfona calling homosexual acts fundamentally wrong; however, it was clear that there would be no great public shift anytime soon. At that time, no province had yet repealed its effective sodomy laws, nor had any province seen a sudden surge in support of even LGBT rights. The Isene Society by this point had splintered slightly into two groups: the actual Isene Society, and an offshoot which came to be called the Sargozina Society, catering exclusively to female homosexuals and a large number of "political" lesbians and bisexuals that had sprouted up in the Kingdom in response to the HPRA of 1809. It was not long after that both the Isene and Sargozina societies would take up political activism in an effort to turn the tide–and it would be this, to an extent, that would do so.

The general shift in public opinion began in the late 1820s and early 1830s, when the Isene and Sargozina societies began to advocate on behalf of the homosexual and bisexual communities of the Kingdom, and when provinces began to overturn what were essentially sodomy laws. In 1828, the High Court of the Kryfona Kingdom struck down the national law banning homosexual activity, not because of that in specific, but due to the discriminatory practices between women and men that it entailed. Subsequently, a new law was drafted to avoid this, but a number of provinces saw an opportunity and wholly relinquished their sodomy laws. Seuyastazal, with an Arieles plurality, was the first to repeal its law, followed after by Kghelias, Lawvsgara, and Szaras. The laws of Rsza and Vrlxsena fell in 1830, and Iyarzalhne killed its law in 1831. By 1835, only three provinces and the four territories in the far eastern Kingdom had not voluntarily removed their sodomy laws.[note 2] The remaining laws in place were all struck down collectively in 1840, when the High Court ruled that all sodomy laws were unconstitutional.

Notes

  1. Legally, the punishment for "sexual activity with the same sex" was determined by the province in which it took place. Most provinces simply gave imprisonment for a period of time varying from a year to life; however, in Azsaeh the death penalty was a potential punishment, and chemical castration was the norm in the provinces of Peiretsaja and Taharlsqov. Ultimately, these laws were either struck down or voluntarily rescinded by the year 1840. It is not known how many were punished collectively under them.
  2. The provinces were Azsaeh, Peiretsaja and Taharlsqov; the territories were the Fyranasaa Territory, the North and South Vyfarla Territories, and the Yerljasqar Territory. The Kryfona Tuszke, a puppet state that was not yet incorporated into the Kingdom, abolished its sodomy law in 1834.

References