Mr. Edward Murzin, Deputy of the Bashkortostan (Kurultai) State Council has proposed legitimating homosexual marriages. According to ROSBALT'S correspondent, the Deputy introduced to the State Kurultai Committee for Labour and Social Matters, Family, Maternity, Childhood and Health the draft project on amendments to the Family Code of the Bashkortostan Republic.

According to the Deputy, the homosexual marriage legalisation will take the modification of just two Family Code's articles. In particular, he proposes replacing "wilful agreement of man and woman" with "wilful agreement of citizens". In order to back his draft project, the Deputy made it a point that according to the World Health Organisation, only ten percent of the world population are prone to homosexual relations and accept no relations with the opposite sex. "Homosexual partners are full society members to have the equal rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, the Constitution of Russia and Bashkortostan protects the citizens' interests regardless of their sex and/or sexual orientation and prevents discrimination by sex", Mr. Edward Murzin pointed out.

As the Deputy pointed out further, "The Constitution of Bashkortostan initially has had room for homosexual marriage opportunity as it says that marriage shall be based on mutual agreement and equal rights of spouses with no reference to their sex".

Deputy Murzin already has the legal opinion of the Bashkortostan State Council Secretariat stating that the draft project of amendments may not be accepted as being counter to the Russian Constitution and the RF Family Code stipulating that the said mutual and wilful agreement be between MAN and WOMAN.

Still, Mr. Edward Murzin does not lose hope of convincing his colleagues of accepting the draft project. In the event of their refusal, he does not preclude addressing the RF State Council with a similar legislative initiative.

Deputy Edward Murzin represents the YABLOKO (APPLE) Party in the Bashkortostan Parliament. In the republic he is known under the name of Edward Khusnutdinov - the editor of the oppositional newspaper Vetcherni Neftekamsk. According to the deputy himself, he changed his first and second names in order to shed the fame of a scandalous oppositionist and because of the complex second name, which is hard for the people of other regions to remember