Tomas V. Raskevičius, LGL‘s Policy Coordinator, participated in a kick-off meeting for the international project “Call It Hate: Raising Awareness of Anti-LGBT Hate Crime“, held on February 8th-9th, 2018 in Bergamo (Italy). The project builds upon the continuing efforts by the association LGL to counteract the negative phenomenon of anti-LGBT hate crimes and hate speech both in Lithuania and in Europe.

During the “Call It Hate” kick-off meeting, project partners discussed future project activities with the view of raising public awareness about the negative phenomenon of anti-LGBT hate crimes and hate speech. The special focus was devoted to the methodological discussion on the representative public opinion survey, which is going to be executed in 10 project partnership countries in 2018. The results of this ambitious survey are going to inform the campaigning efforts by the partner organizations in the field of anti-LGBT hate crimes and hate speech during the project implementation period.

The “Call It Hate” project will include quantitative and qualitative research, preparation of reports and factsheets, organisation of international training, organisation of awareness raising campaigns and outreach activities and organization of press conferences and final conference. The project will be implemented in 10 partnership countries, namely Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Ireland, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, Croatia and Hungary.

The project “Call It Hate: Raising Awareness of Anti-LGBT Hate Crime“ is funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union. It will be implemented in the period between January, 2018 and December, 2019. The Grant Agreement No. JUST-REC-DISC-AG-2016-04-764731.