For the first time in Lithuania’s history, three same-sex couples are going to court to defend their right to start a family and register their marriage in Lithuania. According to the Association of Tolerant Youth, which initiated these strategic cases, they aim to resolve the main obstacles in recognizing and regulating these couples’ relationships. “When

Gender-neutral partnership bill was registered in the Lithuanian Parliament on May 21, 2021, returning the question of same-sex union recognition to political agenda after staggering four-years break. While it does recognize same-sex unions, the bill does not reference the concept of family, nor it addresses regulations related to child adoption. It does not make a reference to

R.I.S.E. Positive Role Model Campaign Encourages LGBTI Family Acceptance

R.I.S.E. invites all members of society to get to know and connect with LGBTI families and their daily struggles arising from the lack of both legal recognition and social acceptance. Personal stories allow to see the issues of family rights recognition through the eyes of LGBTI people and their loved ones while calling for development of the

On April 1, 2001, just a few seconds after midnight, Mayor of Amsterdam was the first registrar in the world to marry a gay couple. That night four same-sex couples tied the knot, followed by another 382 who married in the same month. Currently sixteen European countries fully recognize same-sex marriages, while thirteen recognize a

The UK Supreme Court has ruled same-sex married couples should get the same pension benefits as straight couples. John Walker, an ex-British army officer, brought the case with the help of human rights organization Liberty. He has been battling for five years to get this ruling. In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court ruled a loophole

On December 5th, 2016 the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania ruled that the case regarding the Lithuanian Migration Department‘s refusal to issue a temporary residence permit to a Belarusian man, who is married to his Lithuanian same-sex partner under the Danish law, will be referred to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. The

Neringa Dangvydė, the author of the fairytale book Amber Heart, has secured her first victory: the court will have to reexamine whether fairytales depicting homosexual characters should be considered as “harmful to minors”. The Supreme Court of Lithuania revoked previous decisions by the Vilnius County Court and Vilnius City District Court and returned the case

Lithuanian Government Pushes Opposite-Sex Partnership Bill

On August 11th, 2016 the Government of the Republic of Lithuania gave approval to the changes proposed by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania to the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania which would legalize civil partnership of opposite-sex couples and further exclude same-sex couples from legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

On June 28th, 2016 the Lithuanian Parliament voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, which seeks to eliminate same-sex couples from the ambit of the constitutional concept of family life. 74 MPs voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, 19 MPs voted against and 20 MPs abstained. This vote implicates that no sooner than in

LGL invited to International Baltic Pride 2016 Human Rights Conference

The National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL invited to the one-day international human rights conference “Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships: Emerging International Consensus and Local Opportunities”, which has been organized within the framework of the Baltic Pride 2016 events on 17 June 2016. It was organized with the view of discussing the international and European movement