The Lithuanian society needs a “wider discussion” on the legalization of same-sex partnerships, says the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė.
“We need a wider discussion on these issues in our society. EU members’ practice of legalizing partnerships varies. Lithuania has not even properly regulated partnerships between men and women,” the president told via her press service when asked whether she favoured the legalization of same-sex partnerships.
On the 25th of March, 2015 nine Lithuanian members of parliament representing the Social Democratic and Liberal party groups have registered a bill to allow same-sex civil partnership. Political scientists say, however, it will hardly get parliamentary approval any time soon.
Vladimir Simonko, the leader of the national LGBT* rights organization LGL, welcomed the proposed law to allow same-sex partnerships, saying the step would trigger discussions about the rights of homosexual persons living together.
“It is not very easy for laws to make way, however, the proposal of the law will lead to discussions in the positive sense, and I believe that the issue will no longer be a taboo,” Mr. Simonko told on the 25th of March, 2015. The executive director of LGL noted that Lithuania is among the few European nations “that has not even opened discussions into the matter.”
Bills on the legalization of same-sex partnerships have been drafted in Lithuania before but they have never reached the parliament. Two years ago, the President of the Republic of Lithuania said a discussion about same-sex partnerships in Lithuania was “premature”.
