The constitution of Slovakia has been amended to define marriage as specifically the “unique bond between a man and a woman”. MPs from both the SMER (Social Democrats), and the KDH (Christian Democrats), voted for the amendment. The amendment specifically bars same-sex relationships to be recognised under the term ‘marriage’, and stops gay and lesbian couples from
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Naples mayor Luigi De Magistris has announced plans to record same-sex marriages that have been performed in countries where they are legal in his city’s civil register. He announced the plans just weeks after an Italian court ruled that the Tuscan city of Grosseto must register the marriage of a couple who married in New
Representatives of the Lithuanian Labour Party and Order and Justice express their views on LGBT issues to lrt.lt. The deputy chairman of the Lithuanian Labour Party Kęstutis Daukšys was asked a question about the party’s short program, which states that Members of the European Parliament representing the Labour Party are going to protect people from
LGL is happy to announce the publication of its 2012-2013 Annual Report. Those were very important years for our organization: a lot of events and initiatives were organized and implemented, giving LGL new visibility in the Lithuanian society and contributing to raising the awareness of Lithuanian citizens on issues related to LGBT rights. Two of
The World Health Organization (WHO) has joined forces with UN Women, UN AIDS, UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to condemn the forced sterilization of transgender and intersex people in a groundbreaking report. The report, ‘Eliminating forced, coercive and
On May 30 the last event of the Rainbow Days 2014 took place in Klaipėda. The day started with a lecture on the multiple and complex relations between communities and social movements, conducted by human rights activists and LGL staff members Aliona Polujanova and Raminta Biziulevičiūtė. After the lecture, the movie Children of God was
Sam Kutesa serves as Ugandan Foreign Minister under President Museveni, who recently introduced a strict anti-gay law in the country, with heavy punishments for offenders. Kutesa, who previously claimed that the majority of Africans “abhor” homosexuality, will become President of the General Assembly next month without a single vote cast, having been selected by the African Union
The parliament in Kyrgyzstan is being urged to reject legislation which would ban “foreign agents” and “homosexual propaganda”. The Human Rights Watch (HRC) states that the bills are intended to criminalise “homosexual propaganda”, and to force restrictions onto small charities, in moves which could marginalise minorities. Introduced this month, the bills could be put to a vote
Cyprus is set to hold its first ever pride event on Saturday 31 May, sixteen years after a law banning homosexuality was repealed. Authorities in the island’s Turkish Cypriot north, a self-declared state recognised only by Ankara, repealed a similar law in February. Same-sex couples in Cyprus do not receive the same rights as heterosexual
185 (25%) newly elected members of the 751-seat European Parliament have signed ILGA-Europe’s European Elections 2014 Come Out Pledge, committing themselves to advancing human rights and LGBTI equality over the next five years. Since the launch of the Come Out campaign in January, ILGA-Europe and its members reached out to candidates in all EU countries,
May 2014 was an important month for Europe. The elections for the European Parliament, which took place from May 22 to May 25 in all the member States of the EU, revealed who will represent us in the next five years within the Union. A number of initiatives have been taken in order to raise
The Rainbow Days 2014, a three-week long festival organized by LGL (Lithuanian Gay League) in celebration of IDAHOT (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia), is coming to an end. These last few weeks have seen a number of cultural events happening in Vilnius and in other Lithuanian cities, all of them revolving around the topic