Last Friday, national LGBT* rights organization LGL received an exclusive invitation from the Ambassador of Ireland to his residence for an official reception for human rights activists. David Noonan, the new ambassador, was received by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė only a few weeks ago. One of his first objectives was to show support for LGBT*
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National LGBT* rights organization LGL organized an international conference “Tackling Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying: Challenges and Effective Responses”, which took place in Vilnius on October 2, 2014. The presentations on homophobic and transphobic bullying were given by a team of international experts: Marinus Schouten (GALE – the Global Alliance for LGBT* Education, the Netherlands), Michael Barron
 
An LGBT rights resolution was adopted on Friday by the United Nations Human Rights Council on a vote of 25–14, with seven abstentions. The resolution is rather anemic, simply calling for a report from the U.N. high commissioner for human rights on combatting human rights violations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Council of Europe has warned Lithuania over its failure to adopt laws that would allow gender reassignment surgeries. This week the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which monitors the implementation of rulings of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, applied the so-called “enhanced supervision procedure” for Lithuania. The decision was taken after all earlier
 
23 Members of Parliament addressed Minister of Education Dainius Pavalkis, inquiring about a newly published textbook of the Lithuanian language. The textbook, intended for 4th graders, contains a story of a girl who comes to a new school pretending she is a boy and is happy that everyone believes her. According to some politicians, the

To celebrate International Bi Visibility Day, the national LGBT* rights organization, LGL, sent postcards to Lithuanian Members of Parliament. The postcards, which included an explanation of bisexuality along with key facts, reached the mailboxes of all 140 MPs on Tuesday. Thanks to LGL, Lithuania was one of the few countries in the world to celebrate

Experts who assessed the advertisement of the campaign “Change it“, created by the national LGBT* rights organization LGL, decided that the video has a negative influence on minors. DELFI writes that on Monday, September 15, experts of The Office of the Inspector of Journalists’ Ethics made a decision about the ad which was refused by Lithuanian TV
 
In light of the persistent deterioration of LGBT* civil rights in Lithuania, many opinions and ideas surface to speculate upon the matter. Why does it seem like things are moving backwards instead of forwards? Which governmental institutions and practices help or hinder civil rights? Human Rights activists face tough challenges in Lithuania: parliamentary and media
 
Queer Festival of Russia: Celebrating Identities “QueerFest”, the queer pride event of Russia, opened in St. Petersburg with a bang. Over 160 people made it, despite the last minute change of venues, attacks by provocateurs, and insults by the usual guest – Vitaly Milonov. The organizers learned of the planned actions to foil the event
 
The Irish government will publish a long-awaited bill to recognize the gender of trans people by the end of 2014, it has been announced. The bill, which was first announced in June, would bring Irish law in line with that of other countries, by legally recognizing the gender of trans people in all dealings with the State,
 
National LGBT* rights organization LGL would like to take an opportunity to kindly invite you to the International conference “Tackling Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying: Challenges and Effective Responses” which will take place in Vilnius on October 2, 2014. As such homophobic and transphobic bullying is a form of discrimination and exclusion. It has an impact
 
