On 4 March, 2021 Vladimir Simonko, Executive Director of the National LGBT rights organization LGL, participated in RENEW Europe online webinar “Enforcing LGBTI rights across the Union. Legislation and Litigation”. This webinar hosted by Sophie in ‘t Veld MEP discussed the application and enforcement of EU law and principles in the field of LGBTI rights. It
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Lithuania born Karolis Servetka, also known as Vanda Saiko, has been chosen from thousands to represent Lithuania in the first ever Eurovision Style TV show made exclusively for Drag Artists! The Contest will be shown across the globe and will feature 33 of Europe’s ‘best of the best’ in Drag Entertainment, hosted by Drag Race
Leaders of Lithuania’s Christian religious communities have issued a joint statement, opposing moves to ratify a document on fighting gender violence and to recognise same-sex unions. “Recently, several legislative initiatives that try to deny human nature and endanger the common good of the society have been a cause for concern,” they said in the statement.
Seeing current tensions in Lithuania and an increasing volume of hate speech towards LGBTQ+ people, on Friday, March 5th members of Lithuanian Diversity Charter issued a statement supporting LGBTIQ+ community. Companies, public institutions and NGOs called for mutual respect in discussions on sensitive matters and sticking to facts and research rather than emotions. It is
Survey by Baltijos tyrimai, implemented on 15-19 of January, 2021, reflected Lithuanian opinion on same-sex family rights. While overall support remains very low, survey revealed certain new tendencies. 41% of respondents agreed that it is necessary to lay down laws regulating same-sex partners’ rights despite not agreeing that such relationship constitutes a family. Only 8 %
On February 19, 2021, press conference regarding the resignation of Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, the openly homosexual chair of the Human Rights Committee, was held in the Lithuanian Parliament. Chair of the Human Rights Committee was attacked by unfounded claims of ‘traditional family values’ supporters who insisted on his resignation. These efforts included the petition for his resignation
Speaker of the Seimas and leader of ruling Liberals Movement of the Republic of Lithuania Party Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen faced criticism from conservative forces when she proposed to appoint Vytautas Mizaras, a lawyer who represented the local LGBT community in the court, as a judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. Čmilytė-Nielsen informed
In January, IT courses organized by the National LGBT rights organization LGL started, which will help young people under the age of 29 who are not studying and cannot find a job for a long period of time to find employment in the IT sector. The courses are implemented as part of the project “Direction Employment”,
Newly elected Lithuanian Parliament led by a coalition of Conservative and Liberal powers swiftly, without much of a public debate, adopted amendments to the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information on January 14, 2021. While these amendments introduced quite a few reasonable changes to the current regulation, it did not address the most controversial
Lithuanian MEP Viktor Uspaskich whose Facebook page features a video of him calling LGBT people “perverts” has been given until Thursday to explain and apologise if he wants to stay in his political group. Uspaskich, a leader of Lithuania’s populist Labour Party and a member of the centrist Renew grouping in the European Parliament, published the
On 6 January, 2021 a video was posted on a Facebook group in which two men trample a rainbow flag, then wet it and burn it. The video material was handed over to the law enforcement officials, the circumstances of the incident will be clarified. “True values are not changing. No ideology can be above
On 1st December 2020 the modern art MO museum in Vilnius informed about an incident when one of the posters of the museum’s outdoor exhibition “Why Is It Hard to Love?” was damaged. The poster depicting a same-sex couple was vandalized with red paint. “In the exhibitions at the MO Museum, we invite to talk