Switzerland may soon punish anyone who openly opposes the homosexual and transgender lifestyles.

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) tells OneNewsNow that by a wide margin the National Council of Switzerland has approved a measure that would criminalize so-called homophobia and transphobia. Violators could face a fine or a maximum three years behind bars.

"The leftist homosexual and transgender activist movement continues to expand the definition of these so-called phobias, and so criticism becomes hate, becomes a contribution to violence," LaBarbera laments. "Invariably, these hate speech codes end up curtailing people's right to disagree."

So if it becomes law, Switzerland will equate homosexuality and transgenderism with racism to protect certain groups of people while silencing and jailing others, Christians included.

"There's a consensus in the society against racism in almost all Western societies, but homophobia is a political construct wielded by gay activists to punish people of faith," the AFTAH president asserts. "We've seen that all over the world."

In Great Britain, for example, street preachers have been arrested for simply quoting the Bible. And in Ireland, a bakery was in a court battle for four years for refusing to provide a cake for a homosexual event until the U.K. Supreme Court exonerated them. Now in Switzerland, the criminalization of speech about homosexuality and transgenderism is awaiting approval by the Council of States, the upper chamber, before it can go into effect.