A big billboard of Pope Francis hangs over the center of Slovakia’s capital, urging citizens to vote “Yes” in a referendum on restricting gay rights.
The vote this weekend in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation — which follows a similar one that succeeded in Croatia in 2013 — points to a cultural divide within the European Union in which more established western members are rapidly granting new rights to gays, while eastern newcomers entrench conservative attitudes toward LGBT people.
Last year, Britain became the latest EU nation to legalize gay marriage, joining nine others — all in the bloc’s west. Meanwhile, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the EU’s east all have enacted constitutional bans on gay marriage.
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Gays in Slovakia express alarm that the nation’s anti-gay movement goes against the spirit of Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in the former Czechoslovakia.
“Much still has to be done in my country to gain freedom, the freedom to love,” said Brano Ondrasik, who traveled to Scotland last year to register his same-sex partnership on Nov. 17 — the anniversary of the pro-democracy revolt.
