Gay rights the European Unn: The long journey out of the closet for Lhuania’s gay muny | Internatnal | EL PAÍS English

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A new nned cktail lled Gay Water is lookg to attract LGBTQ drkers and avoid the pfalls of Bud Light's disastro marketg partnership wh transgenr fluencer Dylan Mulvaney.

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THE LONG JOURNEY OUT OF THE CLOSET FOR LHUANIA’S GAY MUNY

Lhuania is a former Soviet bloc untri where morn "Gay Life Lhuania" is nflict wh old relig and secular tradns. * lithuanian gay twitter *

”More rmatnAt 4am on that day Augt, a group of hood figur, who are yet to be intified, hurled Molotov cktails agast the small office belongg to the Lhuanian Gay League (LGL), which is the first anizatn Lhuania to fight for LGBT+ rights.

Fifteen mut later, another Molotov cktail was left outsi the hoe of the uple, who work to brg visibily to the gay muny one of the most rtrictive untri the European Unn when to homosexualy. Only 24% of Lhuanians support same-sex marriage pared to the European average of 64%, acrdg to a 2016 survey by the European people put attacks such as that agast the LGL down to pure homophobia, while others argue that is more to do wh the fact that until recently, the untry was unr the ntrol of the Soviet Unn. “Dpe the magnificent progrs recent years, the LGBT muny is still facg habual discrimatn, ” explas Daniele Vtti, a member of the European Parliament who is on the civil liberti missn, via USSR nsired homosexualy an unsirable nce of the bourgeoisie.

GAY LIFE LHUANIA

As the target of nstant homophobic abe as a teenager, Rimas Prokopovici rarely heard anythg posive about gay people when he was growg up a provcial cy northern Lhuania. * lithuanian gay twitter *

Daniele Vtti, MEP on the civil liberti missnWhen to discrimatn, the Baltic Republic 37th out of 49 European untri the rankg of the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA), wh fay valu beg the ma obstacle to the advancement of LGBT+ the untry, which has almost three ln habants, lived unr the Soviet Unn, everyone need to be equal, says Vtti. What’s more, homosexualy wasn’t even nsired to exist and was believed to be a notn that “me om Wtern thought, ” says Simonko.

LHUANIA'S 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW LOOMS OVER FIGHT FOR SAME-SEX UNNS

LGBT Rights Lhuania: homosexualy, gay marriage, gay adoptn, servg the ary, sexual orientatn discrimatn protectn, changg legal genr, donatg blood, age of nsent, and more. * lithuanian gay twitter *

In Vilni, where there is only one nightclub for the gay muny – SOHO, which opens on Fridays and Saturdays – homosexual symbols are notable for their V. Raskevici reprents the new generatn of gays Lhuania who want to “e out of the closet” whout fear of their parent’s opns – one of the biggt problems for a generatn that grew up unr munism, where homosexualy was prohibed.

LHUANIAN GAY LEAGUE

The Lhuanian Gay League is the only non-ernmental anizatn Lhuania exclively reprentg the terts of the lol LGBT* muny. The LGL associatn is one of the most stable and mature anizatns wh the civic sector the untry, as was found on 3 December 1993. The ma prciple, characterizg the activi of the associatn, is the prciple of pennce om any polil or fancial terts wh the view of attag effective social cln and tegratn of the lol LGBT* muny Lhuania. Based on s expertise the fields of advocy, awarens raisg and muny buildg, accumulated durg twenty years of anizatnal existence, LGL striv for the nsistent progrs the field of human rights for LGBT* people. * lithuanian gay twitter *

Raskevici, who is wearg a long quilted at and a floral shirt, and is a shaved head and blue ntact lens, was Vilni’s first openly gay polician whose electoral mpaign not only drew upon his personal history, but also on the fense of LGBT+ rights. Durg the mpaign, Raskevici rells how he was harshly cricized by policians and by society for “not knowg how to be anythg other than beg gay. Here is one of those former Soviet bloc untri where morn “Gay Life Lhuania” is nflict wh old tradns as the untry emerg om the reprsive mentaly that stigmatized and crimalized homosexualy.

A story about gay Lhuanian life is a paful one wh twists and turns of anti-gay parliament legislators agast nstutnal urt judg and urageo gay activists the streets. The ntroversy about gay rights and discrimatn has rulted a legislative ‘war’ between Lhuanian prejudicial anti-gay statut and the European Unn’s standards of tolerance and equaly.

NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

* lithuanian gay twitter *

Sce the passg of a homophobic law July 2009 that was tend to protect mors om the negative effects of public rmatn–cludg so-lled “advertisg of homosexual, bisexual and polygamo relatns”–crics and fenrs have stumbled over then difficult issue of public homosexualy Lhuania.

Upon assumg office, the new Lhuanian print, Dalia Grybskaė, promised to propose amendments to the discrimatory law agast homosexuals. The article pertag to the ban on homosexual advertisg, orr, supposedly, to protect mors, will be replaced by a ban on all rmatn which would promise sexual tegry, particularly that of young children.

Acrdg to a survey by soclogists specializg genr issu, 38 percent of Lhuanians would distance themselv om a iend who revealed his or her homosexualy to them. When puti adopt homo-phobic laws, there are no assuranc that the groups of hate-mongers won’t terpret this as a ll to act”, he hammers out, alarmed at the cisns beg ma by legislators. “The visible cizens”, as they are termed by the soclogists who thored a large-sle survey on homophobia Lhuania, are subject to several forms of discrimatn, most notably the workplace.

GAY FURRY HACKERS ARE TARGETG US STAT FOR PASSG ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATN

SiegedSec, a group of gay furry hackers, took their skills to US ernments June, breachg agenci across five stat and to release data. * lithuanian gay twitter *

He claims to have recently been a victim of discrimatn when he requted a day off to participate the ILGA Conference of the European Associatn of Homosexuals, held Vilni 2007, and thereby revealed his sexual orientatn.

On several ocsns, the municipali of the larger Lhuanian ci have halted attempts ma by the Lhuanian gay associatn to rm the public about homosexualy.

In Knas, Lhuania’s send largt cy, was forbidn to affix large ads to the trolleyb wh the followg slogans: “A lbian n be a teacher”, and “A policeman n be gay”.

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

Jacksonville Jaguars associate strength ach Kev Maxen jt me out as gay. * lithuanian gay twitter *

Given the suatn, as Vladimir Simonko remarks, many young homosexual Lhuanians “seek out plac where they are safe to exprs themselv whout discrimatn and where they n be themselv, whout hidg nor lyg, and where they n image a future”. The headl the Lhuanian media the past five years have prented the nflict between gays and straights dramatic tail, sometim biased agast and sometim tolerant.

LAKERS AMONG TEAMS LKED TO RUDY GAY

Soho gay club ( Vilni) after London’s venu feels like a Soviet Unn’s basement club for old pervs to be hont Men’s Factory is not a gay club anymore.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

Aramantas wrote this reactn to the problems of Lhuania and pared s relig fluence to other Catholic untri: “Gay rights activists and anizers are vilified Catholic Vilni; meanwhile, largely Catholic Mexi has legalized same sex marriage and Brazilian megapolis San Paolo hosted the world’s largt pri event wh over three ln participants early June. The greatt chang on the GLBT ont are occurrg Catholic Lat Ameri, while strongly Catholic Poland and Lhuania ntue to persecute their gay mori. Another ment, om Dunn, offers a more balanced view his ments: “I am a gay UK man and have vised LT many tim, and am aware that Lhuania is a homophobic untry.

Many Lhuanians who have worked the UK, where LGBT people are more accepted, have worked wh gays, noticed they are no different to straights, and lost their homophobic opns. Here is another young man, Petras, om Lhuania who has had a very different experience of beg gay, “well, I haven’t enuntered any homophobic act agast me my life.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

And fally, Jonas had this to say: “I saw Gay Pri 2010 Vilni and was very strange; a small, shy monstratn wh mostly foreign people, cludg Polish supporters, lookg like a prott of workers at a supermarket.

Male and female same-genr sexual activy have been legal Lhuania sce 1993, however gay-marriage and civil same-sex partnership are not officially regnized. Durg that mpaign members of Lhuanian Parliament were asked to state their opns regardg the harsh posn of Lhuanian Catholic church hierarchy that claims “homosexualy is a perversn”. Through tn, support, and reprentatn of the LGBT muny, LGL promot an clive social environment for gay men, lbian women, bisexual and transgenr persons.

Lhuanian Gay League is a natnal nonprof, nonernmental anizatn ung homosexual, bisexual, and transgenr persons, a member of the Internatnal Lbian and Gay Associatn (ILGA) sce 1994. This group ncentrat on velopg mean of munitn, socializg between homosexual upl Lhuania, and munitg wh other siar groups and associatns abroad. It has published a Lhuanian versn of the booklet ‘Our Dghters and Sons’ origally posed the Uned Stat by PFLAG–Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* LITHUANIAN GAY TWITTER

7 openly gay lears have served as heads of state. Latvian print Edgars Rkēvičs is the latt.

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