In a last-minute move, the governor of Istanbul banned Sunday’s Pride Parade, using the month of Ramadan as a justification. In previous years, Prides were also held during Ramadan, without obstruction by the state and tens of thousands people participating. As demonstrators gathered to start the Pride Parade, defying the ban, they got violently attacked
News / Human Rights
This June, Riga hosted Europride 2015. Ten years on from when the first Latvian gay pride took place in Riga, several hundred thousand people will come from across the continent to show their support for gay rights. Proof that the Baltic States have become a much more hospitable place for the LGBT community? Perhaps not.
Lithuania has recently started discussing its attitudes towards homosexuality, in what remains a novelty for a country ranked among the most homophobic in the EU. While data shows that attitudes remain largely the same, many agree that the debates are proof that a change may be coming, albeit slowly. The discussions were largely sparked by
The Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania has appointed Deputy Culture Minister Agneta Lobačevskytė as the head of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania. The candidate was proposed by the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Loreta Graužinienė. During a secret vote on the 18th of June, 2015 Mrs. Lobačevskytė was supported
Evelyne Paradis, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe Check your calendars. Infringements of fundamental rights, like freedom of expression, association, and assembly inside the European Union’s borders in 2015 – surely there is some mistake? No, unfortunately, that is not a misprint. LGBTI activists and human rights NGOs are being increasingly impeded in their daily work and
On the 18th of June, 2015 in cooperation with the US Embassy in Vilnius, the LGBT* Centre of the national LGBT* organization LGL was visited by Randy Berry, the U.S. Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons. The newly appointed Special Envoy got informed about the situation in Lithuania for LGBT* people, on
Rescuing the drowning is the responsibility of the drowning themselves; there is no place for gays, lesbians, transsexuals and other similar people in Lithuanian society. Such were the dominant views expressed after the District Court of Klaipėda reached an official decision regarding the photo of two boys kissing that was posted on Facebook. However, it
MEPs Sophie in ‘t Veld and Izaskun Bilbao, vice-presidents of the ALDE Group, will be in Riga this weekend to join the Europride 2015 and meet key players in the field of LGBTI rights, including the representatives of the national LGBT* rights organization LGL. During the meeting with LGL’s representatives the MEPs will discuss the
An education policy launched by the Maltese government on the 16th of June, 2015 is another ground-breaking move, inspired by the landmark Gender Expression, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics Act passed earlier this year. The policy is the first of its kind in Europe; no other European country has a comprehensive education policy focusing on the needs
On the 17th of June, 2015 the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Lithuania Juozas Olekas argued that homosexual conscripts are not deprived of the right to serve in the Lithuanian army. Mr. Olekas has been forced to reassure that the country’s military does not discriminate against homosexual conscripts after an army psychiatrist
For which purpose a future soldier is asked questions such as: do you like picking flowers and/or would you like to be a florist? Perhaps in order to have Lithuanian conscripts in the army decoded as homosexual persons or have their sexual orientation revealed? The military acknowledges that homosexual conscripts are not welcome in the
“I represent traditional families, but I am not against partnership, as partnership is not same-sex marriage, partnership defines property relations,” the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas Loreta Graužinienė claimed on the 17th of June, 2015 when asked about her opinion on registered partnership for same-sex couples. Speaking about cohabitation of persons of the same