Lithuanian artist Alen Chicco suffered a homophobic attack in one of Vilnius bars

Last weekend for Tomas Alenčikas-Alen Chicco was extremely uncomfortable – a visit into one of the bars ended in an assault and beating. “No, it is not filter, it’s Lithuania”, after publishing the photo, wrote Alen Chicco. When journalists contacted Tomas, he said that he had been attacked on Sunday night at the “Pilėnai” bar

STRASBOURG OBSERVERS, February 7, 2020 Ingrida Milkaite is a PhD researcher in the research group Law & Technology at Ghent University, Belgium. She is working on the research project ‘A children’s rights perspective on privacy and data protection in the digital age’ (Ghent University, Special Research Fund) and is a member of the Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law and

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

In today’s Chamber judgment1 in the case of Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania (application no. 41288/15) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, taken in conjunction with Article 8 (right to respect for private and

Season’s Greetings from LGL: Thank you for the Success of the Baltic Pride!

2019 was a year of exciting challenges and inspiring victories for the National LGBT rights organization LGL. Thanks to your encouragement and support, LGL was able to take many important steps aimed at improving the LGBT human rights situation in Lithuania. This year, LGL has implemented a number of successful projects. The most notable of

First European Parliament resolution on LGBTI rights of the 9th legislature

On December 18th 2019, the European Parliament adopted its first text dedicated to LGBTI rights: a resolution on public discrimination and hate speech against LGBTI people. Malin Björk, Vice-president of the LGBTI Intergroup, said: “It is simply unacceptable to see “LGBTI-free zones” spread in an EU country.” “Adopting resolutions that discriminate against LGBTI people and their families will

LGL and All Out Started a Petition to end LGBT content censorship in Lithuania

On December 16th, 2019 LGL and All Out started collecting signatures on a petition to put an end to LGBT content censorship in Lithuania. The target of the petition is the Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information, which for almost ten years makes Lithuania the only EU member

National LGBT rights organization LGL in partnership with ACCEPT (Romania), Mladejka  LGBT organizatsiya deystvie (Bulgaria), Hatter Tarsasag (Hungary) and International LGBTI Associaction ILGA Europe starts a new project JUST EU: equality and justice for LGBTI citizens though strategic litigation. The goal of the project is to identify and prioritize the legal obstacles faced by LGBTI citizens

On December 10th, 2019, Eglė Kuktoraitė, Communications Manager at the National LGBT rights organization LGL, participated in a meeting on monitoring hate speech comments on social media in Paris (France), attended by the representatives of the European Commission, social networks and European NGOs. During the meeting, representatives from several European non-governmental organizations currently monitoring hate

On Friday 13th of December 2019 the international conference “Combating homophobic, biphobic and transphobic stereotypes and prejudice by and through mainstream media” took place in the conference room of the Jurnalists’ Union of Daily Newspapers – ESIEA (Athens, Greece). The conference was organized by Colour Youth – Athens LGBTQ Youth Community, in co-operation with ΚΜΟP

The situation of LGBT+ people in Estonia: a Warning Sign to Lithuania

LGBT persons and events in neighbouring countries of Lithuania, including Estonia, are under attack by the ruling parties. Representatives of the LGBT Association in Estonia say the community is intimidated, and Vladimir Simonko, Executive Director of the National LGBT rights organization LGL, warns that what is happening in Estonia is a serious signal to us

Gabriella Calleja, head of the SOGIGESC unit of the Human Rights and Integration Directorate in the Maltese Ministry for European Affairs and Equality, who took part at the National Forum on Human Rights on December 10 at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, is certain that enforcing equality in the country positively affects all