The ruling coalition in Moldova has come under fire for attempting to pass an anti-discrimination bill.

The Alliance for European Integration (AIE), is trying to pass the bill to give protection to minority groups that include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

However, it is facing heavy resistance from the opposition Communist Party and the Orthodox Church. They’re working together to tie the bill to the Eastern European country’s small Muslim minority and promote the idea that it represents the ‘Islamisation and homosexualisation’ of Moldova.

The bill would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as other minorities. It comes after the council in Balti, the country’s third largest city, passed laws banning the ‘propagandising of homosexuality’ in February.

The Balti anti-gay laws bear a strong similarity to the recent St Petersburg banning of ‘propaganda of homosexuality to minors’. However, the council denies the laws are based on those in St Petersburg, despite the Moldovan Communist Party having ties with United Russia.

Balti and other Moldovan cities have seen an influx of leaflets with anti-gay messages in recent weeks. One says: ‘The law on non-discrimination acknowledges the dictatorship of homosexualism over normalcy and gives pederasts more rights than other people.

‘Any homosexual will be able to practice deviance in public places, even in front of our children. Pederasts will have every right to teach in kindergartens, schools, and universities about how “fine and normal” it is to be homosexual.’

Although it is not known who is producing the leaflets, the AIE suspects the Orthodox Church.