On November 29, 2014 the Order and Justice Party has nominated a Member of the Lithuanian Parliament Petras Gražulis to run for Vilnius mayor’s office. “I can tell you that if I am elected, there will be no gay parades”, assured the candidate. MP Gražulis, who chairs the Party’s political group in the Lithuanian parliament,
News / LGBT Guide LT / From Lithuania
On November 25, 2014 the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas rejected yet another candidate for the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson. In a secret ballot, 48 MPs voted in favor of appointing lawyer Diana Gumbrevičiūtė-Kuzminskienė to the position, 42 were against and 18 abstained. MP Dalia Kuodytė criticized the vote as disgraceful, saying that the outcome reflected the prevailing homophobic
The Union of Lithuanian Psychologists has issued a statement, criticizing a ban on airing a social video ad about LGBT* rights on television. Broadcasters have refused to air the video, saying it would violate a controversial minors protection law, but psychologists claim censorship of this kind is what does harm to children rather than messages
The Minister of Justice of Lithuania Juozas Bernatonis (Social Democratic Party) claimed that Lithuania will not follow the example of neighboring Estonia. According to Mr Bernatonis, civil partnership will not be legalized in Lithuania as long as he will be in charge of the Ministry of Justice. “I would say that this is an extremely
On the 12-16th November LGL volunteer coordinator Gabija Morkūnaitė and board member Elena Dapkūnaitė took part in the international seminar „Back to the Future II“ in Turin (Italy) that was organized under the Erasmus+ programme. During the seminar the participants from 13 different countries shared their experiences of working with the European Voluntary Service (EVS)
The national LGBT* rights organization LGL initiated a meeting with the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas and the leader of the Lithuanian Labor Party Loreta Graužinienė on September and November this year. Both times were unsuccessful. The Office of the Lithuanian Speaker of the Parliament claims that Ms. Graužinienė has no time for a
The Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas and the leader of the Lithuanian Labor Party Loreta Graužinienė declared that Latvia’s foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics should have disclosed his sexual orientation prior to the assignment to the post. “But I think that the Minister should have done it prior to the appointment to the post rather than
On November 5th, 2014 the national LGBT* rights organization LGL applied to Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania under Vilnius Regional Administrative Court’s judgment to reject LGL’s appeal against social video censorship. On October 23rd, 2014 LGL appealed to Vilnius Regional Administrative Court, requesting to revoke the decision by the Lithuanian Office of the Inspector of Journalist
On October 25th, 2014 the national LGBT* rights organization LGL applied to the European Commission (EC) under the European Union (EU) directive infringement process. A formal complaint, prepared in collaboration with the European LGBTI organization “ILGA-Europe”, states that the Lithuanian authorities have violated the EU Treaty, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Audiovisual
On Friday 24th October 2014 the Vilnius District Court started proceedings in a criminal case, where prosecutors accuse Dmitrijus Masliukovas of public insult, humiliation, and harassment for a group of people based on their sexual orientation. The process was initiated after Mr. Masliukovas wrote a comment in one Lithuanian website about the upcoming Baltic Pride
Latvian capital Riga hosted an annual international conference of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex) rights organization ILGA-Europe on October 8-11. Activists overviewed the latest developments in the field of LGBTI human rights, shared the best practices and agreed upon the following steps to ensure equal rights for all citizens, regardless of their sexual
To ensure continuity and consistency of organization‘s work, national LGBT* rights organization LGL held a strategic planning session, attended by LGL staff, board members, and volunteers on October 18th, 2014 in Vilnius. Considering the changes of social, cultural and political context in which organization carries out its activities, the main challenges and guidelines were discussed