Lithuanian court rules in favor of LGBT pride organizers

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania passed a ruling on Thursday, ordering Vilnius authorities to review their decision regarding the venue for an LGBT pride march scheduled for July. Having heard the organizers’ appeal, the court ruled that Vilnius City Municipality had made a non-substantiated decision to move the planned event from central Gedimino Avenue,

Lithuanian court to hear LGBT pride march case

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania is scheduled to start hearing Vilnius Municipality’s appeal regarding the location of a planned LGBT march on Tuesday. The case will be heard without holding a public hearing and without the attendance of the parties involved. Read more at 15min.lt

Lithuanian MPs ask EU opinion on anti-gay bills

A group of Lithuanian lawmakers have turned to EU institutions, asking for their position as to whether bills put before the Seimas do not violate human and sexual minority rights. The bills include proposals to ban “violation of constitutional moral values” and state that “every child has the natural right to a father and mother,

The controversial legislative proposals to ban abortions and to introduce administrative sanctions for “homosexual propaganda” have received no attention by the President in the course of her annual statement, which was read in front of the Lithuanian Parliament on 11 June 2013. It seems that the President has closed her eyes by refusing to refer to some

The group of the Lithuanian MPs seeks to establish that the criticism of homosexuality and attempts to change one’s sexual orientation would not be qualified as discrimination or harassment on grounds of sexual orientation. The MPs propose to amend the Criminal Code by inserting a provision that “the criticism of sexual behavior or sexual practices, convictions or

New EU asylum rules will better protect LGBT people

Today the European Parliament adopted a new version of the European Union law on asylum procedures. The text contains notable improvements for LGBT asylum-seekers. The new Directive now foresees that some asylum-seekers “may be in need of special procedural guarantees due […] to their age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity […]“. When receiving an asylum application, Member

An LGBT pride march scheduled to be held in Vilnius in July is an opportunity for Lithuania to get positive attention from Europe and to demonstrate its human rights progress, Vilnius-based ambassadors of some Northern and Western European countries have told BNS. The embassies of the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland say

EU supports proposal to work on health and well-being of LGBTI people

Lithuania (on behalf of the EU and its Member States) delivered a speech at the meeting of the Executive Board of the World Health Organisation (WHO) which was debating LGBT health issues and said that the EU welcomes the initiative towards improving the health and well-being of LGBT people and suggesting broadening the topic to

The European Union will respond to attempts by any EU member state to ignore EU legislation and treaties defending people’s right to live the life they want to live, European Commission Vice-President, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, said in Vilnius on Friday when asked to comment on initiatives by some

The LRT Council, i.e. the highest decision-making body of the Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT), will decide, whether to broadcast the Baltic Pride 2013 Vilnius 2013 March for Equality social advertising campaign on the national television by the end of June 2013, says the TV Managing Director Rimvydas Paleckis. The administration of the LRT has

On 23 May 2013 the Lithuanian Parliament made a first step towards explicitly prohibiting the procedure of gender reassignment in Lithuania by placing the corresponding amendment to the Civil Code on the parliamentary agenda. 36 MPs voted in favor of the proposal, 3 MPs – against and 1 MP abstained (the full voting results can

The results of the EU LGBT Survey, published by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) on 17 May 2013, indicate that 61% of the Lithuanian LGBT* community suffer from discrimination or harassment. According to the survey, it is the highest ratio of hostility towards the local LGBT* community among 27 EU Member States and Croatia.