On 1 July 2011 representatives of the Lithuanian organisations active in the area of human rights gathered for a meeting with the representatives of the US State Department including Mike Posner, Assistant Secretary to the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and his deputies Daniel Baer and Thomas Melia.

At the meeting, which took place at the nation’s only LGBT community centre in Vilnius, issues related to human rights and the problems that homosexual and transgender people experience in Lithuania were discussed.

The participants of the meeting named a number of problems that the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people) community faces in the country. Head of the Lithuanian Gay League Vladimir Simonko thanked the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her strong support for human rights defenders and the attention devoted to the LGBT communities worldwide.

The guests showed interest in the activities undertaken by the organisations that participated in the meeting, including parliamentary initiatives and the work of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and the Office of Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.

The meeting was attended by the Member of Parliament Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė, representatives of the Lithuanian Gay League, the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights and the Tolerant Youth.

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