God “does not and cannot bless sin” - Hate Speech Laws: Quo Vadis?

God “does not and cannot bless sin” - Hate Speech Laws: Quo Vadis?

By Natalie Alkiviadou
Source: "All shall be equal before the law: justice graffiti in Cape Town, South Africa" by Ben Sutherland is licensed under CC BY 2.0

On the 15th March 2021, the Vatican issued a statement (approved by the Pope) which notes that the Catholic church would not bless same-sex unions, referring to them as “sinful” and underlining that God “does not and cannot bless sin.” This statement gives food for thought (for a lot of different things) but also for the issue of hate speech regulation. In this ambit, this short piece will consider the issue of such regulation as well as the position of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to speech against the LGBT community. More...