Duma Rejects Anti-Gay Bill
Moscow
Times, June 15, 2004
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The State Duma refused on Friday to consider a bill
banning alcoholics, homosexuals and pedophiles from holding seats in
parliament.
The bill, submitted by the Kursk region’s legislative
assembly, would have required newly elected deputies to undergo physical and
psychological examinations to make sure they were fit for office.
The bill was sponsored in parliament by Alexander Volkov,
a Duma deputy from Kursk.
Even before Friday a number of deputies had slammed the
legislation as unconstitutional, saying it failed to uphold the right of
citizens to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The bill, which was submitted last year, is dead after
the Duma refused to consider it in a first reading Friday.
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