Northern Ireland is increasingly isolated in western Europe by banning same-sex marriage. What exactly is going on? It has been four years since England and Wales approved equal marriage, and three years since Scotland followed suit. Equal marriage has since spread across Western Europe – with France, Germany and Luxembourg also passing legislation in recent years
News / Human Rights
Summer is the time of Pride marches. The numerous marches in Europe are a testament to the ground-breaking progress toward acceptance of the equal rights of lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons. In the vast majority of European countries, and elsewhere in the world, crowds have been rallying to celebrate – or claim
The government of Finland have decided to keep rules that force the sterilisation of trans people who wish to change their legal gender. In a disappointing blow to trans activists, the Finnish government decided on August 25th to not implement the recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council had previously recommended
Pride Week comes weeks after Mongolia passed laws protecting LGBTI people from hate crimes. Mongolia’s Pride Week launched over the weekend with organizers anticipating it would be its biggest yet. The week started with a parade called the Equality Walk and was attended by locals, dignitaries and expats. It was followed by a concert and
In March 2015, in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine and in accordance with amendments to laws on military obligation, 3500 young people were drafted into compulsory military service. National LGBT* rights organization LGL received a number of inquiries regarding gay and transgender eligibility for service, submitted by those fearing potential discrimination in the military.
A trans person must ‘have been sterilized or is “for some other reason infertile”‘. The Finnish government will review it’s gender recognition laws on 25 August. Trans people must be sterilized currently before they’re able to have their gender changed legally. The Human Rights Council has long been recommending the rule be abolished. They set out two
On 23rd August, 2017 Lithuanian news portal Delfi.lt announced its project’s “Lithuania’s most influential” list of the most influential public figures in Lithuania. For the first time in the country‘s history it features a prominent defender of LGBT* human rights. Vladimir Simonko, Executive Director of the National LGBT* rights organization LGL, appears on the list,
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet next week will formally introduce a bill that will extend marriage to same-sex couples. The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBT advocacy group, in a press release said Bachelet will introduce the measure on Aug. 28. The group in 2012 filed a lawsuit with the Inter-American Commission on
In May, 2017 coinciding with Rainbow Days 2017 celebrations, the National LGBT* rights organization LGL displayed posters in the public spaces of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda, seeking to draw attention to the discrimination LGBT* people face and encouraging others to speak up in the face of discrimination. The posters, displayed in bus shelters around Vilnius,
On 8th August, 2017 the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Lithuania announced that it had finished verifying signatures in support of the European citizens’ initiative “Mum, Dad and Kids – European Citizens’ Initiative to Protect Marriage and Family”. While verifying signatures collected in support of the initiative, the Commission found that 34,324 Lithuanian
Members of Australia’s ruling party on Monday blocked efforts to allow a conscience vote in the country’s parliament on whether to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported only seven members of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal Party-led coalition voted in favor of allowing lawmakers to vote on the issue. The
On 4th August, 2017 representatives of the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL Roberta Matusevičiūtė, Project Manager, and Eglė Kuktoraitė Communications Coordinator, participated in SafeTALK training on suicide prevention organized by the Vilnius Public Health Centre. SafeTALK is a four-hour course that helps participants become conscious about the subject of suicide. SafeTALK training is aimed to