On 21 December, the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) accepted a draft amendment to the Constitution which states that “the family is created by a free marriage agreement between a man and woman”, with 62 members of Seimas in favour and 8 against. The proposal will next be considered by the Committee on Legal Affairs, and is
News
On the 8th of December LGL had the pleasure to host a visitation from a Swedish Green Party delegation, who were on a fact-finding tour of Lithuania, including visits to NGOs. The guests were a group of 8 persons, with a broad representation including members of parliament, county council members, city council members and special
Strasbourg, 09.12.2011 – Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland today warned that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Europeans continue to face discrimination in many parts of the continent. “Homosexuality has been decriminalised all over Europe, but prejudice and hypocrisy still exist towards LGBT persons in Europe. Recently, discriminatory laws have been proposed or
December 9, 2011 – For this historic moment in the LGBT movement, the Council for Global Equality was privileged to bring 14 prominent LGBT activists from around the world to Geneva to be present for Secretary Clinton’s Human Rights Day speech. The Council applauds both Secretary Clinton for the pitch-perfect speech as well as President
Two hens or two roosters cannot lay an egg. This idea was voiced on Wednesday (30/11/2011) at the Committee on Legal Affairs (CLA) of Seimas, where the draft Law on Partnership, drawn up by Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė, was discussed. The CLA decided that the proposal of the Member of Parliament, according to which partnerships could
Can a young man serve in the Army, making no secret he is a homosexual? Such question is raised by country’s LGBT community after receiving a conclusion from the Ombudsman of Equal opportunities. Though Ministry of National Defense (MoND) claims that common principles of non-discrimination are enough and says never heard of possible discrimination based
The Minister of Justice came up with suggestion to adopt discriminatory legal partnership model in Lithuania, which would allow to protect interests of heterosexual couples only. Draft law suggests property regime for unmarried partners very similar to the one of married couples. All property, gained while living together, would be common and would belong to each partner
In the framework of LGL’s on-going project Empowering LBT Women a group of volunteers took up an action of sending postcards to the members of the Lithuanian Parliament. The postcards depicting representatives of LBT community have been produced within the project’s promotional campaign under the motto “Pradėkime kalbėti” (Let’s speak) which encourages to start a dialogue
On 11th October, during the 12th session of the Universal Periodic Review working group, Lithuanian State was questioned by the Members States of the Human Rights Council about the actions that have been undertaken to improve the human rights situation in the country and to fulfill the human rights obligations. Lithuanian Gay League in collaboration
On 5th of October a Written Declaration on access to gender reassignment treatment in Lithuania was tabled in the current session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The document refers to the proposal of the amendment to the Civil Code prohibiting gender reassignment surgery. The legislative initiative is included in the
From 1st till 8th of October 2011 there was an ANSO Annual Conference held in Stockholm. The conference Loud and Visible: Queering Up the Media was hosted by SFQ – the Swedish Federation of LGBTQ Student Organizations. Three representatives of Lithuanian Gay League participated in the event. Young LGBTQ activists from the Nordic countries, Poland
In a resolution adopted yesterday, the European Parliament has called on the World Health Organization to stop considering transgender people as mentally ill. Gender dysphoria is currently classified as a ‘mental and behavioural disorder’ in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases. The text adopted yesterday “calls on the Commission and the World Health Organization to