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

Contents:

• GAY LIFE LHUANIA
• THE LONG JOURNEY OUT OF THE CLOSET FOR LHUANIA’S GAY MUNY
• GAY VILNI
• DO THE LHUANIAN MILARY NEED GAY SERVICE MEMBERS?
• LHUANIA'S 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW LOOMS OVER FIGHT FOR SAME-SEX UNNS

GAY LIFE LHUANIA

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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

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”. 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. 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.

GAY VILNI

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”. 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.

The mon tert is to abolish discrimatn and the equaly of lbian, gay and bisexual persons the area of employment and enablg LGBT persons to work unr circumstanc that are equal to their lleagu. Dpe several charg at the barris and smoke bombs, plastic bottl and unoked ssag thrown at police by the anti-gay protters, there was no vlence only 12 arrts, which clud several members of parliament. There had been mors origatg om the Interim Prosecutor General Raimondas Petrskas that anti-gay radils would attack the participants upon entrance and ex to the para, but when the b rolled up to the perimeter of the fenced area, only the teal fatigu of the Vilni police force uld be seen.

DO THE LHUANIAN MILARY NEED GAY SERVICE MEMBERS?

Seimas member Rokas Žilskas was posg for the meras wh the huge rabow flag and told Baltic Reports that although he had been skeptil at first, he was out mpaigng for human rights, not only gay rights.

The first LGBT film ftival ‘Koks kas’ is anised by Equal Rights & Social Development Centre llaboratn wh Lhuanian Gay League and wh kd support of the Royal Netherlands Embassy Vilni as well as other sponsors.

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

”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. 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. 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.

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. "By makg possible for homosexual people to bee blood donors, Lhuania is g out of the fear and closed-mdns that date back to the Soviet era, ” said Tomas Vyttas Raskeviči, an openly gay lawmaker and member of the parliamentary Human Rights Commtee and the untry's Natnal Blood Centre (NKC).