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

Contents:

• LHUANIA SET TO LEGALISE GAY CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS NEXT YEAR, SAYS LGBT+ LAWMAKER
• THE LONG JOURNEY OUT OF THE CLOSET FOR LHUANIA’S GAY MUNY
• GAY LIFE LHUANIA
• LHUANIAN CATHOLICS OVERWHELMGLY OPPOSED TO GAY MARRIAGE – PEW
• WILL THE MAJOR VICTORY MATė V. LHUANIA CONVCE SEIMAS TO REPEAL THE “ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA” PROVISN?
• WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS
• GAY COUPLE CASE GIV LHUANIA'S HIGHT COURT A CHANCE TO STRENGTHEN RIGHTS PROTECTNS

LHUANIA SET TO LEGALISE GAY CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS NEXT YEAR, SAYS LGBT+ LAWMAKER

(Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Lhuania looks set to legalise same-sex civil partnerships next year, but gay marriage uld be up to a away, acrdg to the untry’s only openly LGBT+ lawmaker - elected this year after appearg on the mpaign trail full Baltic natn’s nstutn says marriage n only be between a man and a woman, and Tomas Raskevici said a nstutnal amendment allowg same-sex marriage would stggle to ga enough support the next few is nfint, however, that registered partnerships for same-sex upl will bee law before the next parliamentary electn due 2024. Although gay sex was legalised 1993, mon wh many other former Soviet untri, LGBT+ people are still unable to adopt children and a law preventg the discsn of homosexualy wh mors remas on the statute “Protectn of Mors” law is beg nsired by the European Court of Human Rights, but Raskevici said was his “prcipal posn...

“We get to this vic circle bee LGBT people don’t have the chance to e out and then society don’t have the chance to meet them real life, and then they hold certa negative stereotyp about this muny, ” Raskevici DRAGLhuania’s first openly gay MP was Rokas Zilskas, who died 2017, but Raskevici was the first to clare his sexualy before enterg the untry’s only openly LGBT+ lawmaker, Raskevici - who donned drag as he nvassed support for October’s electn to challenge “stereotyp about LGBT people” - regnis the need to be a role he remas a reluctant one.

Gay Marriage⚭✖ Foreign same-sex marriag regnized onlyCensorship✖ Fe as punishmentChangg Genr✖ Legal, but requir surgeryNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedEmployment Discrimatn✔ Sexual orientatn and genr intyHog Discrimatn✔ Sexual orientatn and genr intyMilary✖ Lbians, gays, bisexuals permted, transgenr people bannedConversn Therapy✖ Not banned. Lbians, gays, bisexuals permted, transgenr people banned Only 26 untri allow transgenr ary service, Lhuania is not one of themBlood donatns by MSMs Lhuania? ”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.

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

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

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

LHUANIAN CATHOLICS OVERWHELMGLY OPPOSED TO GAY MARRIAGE – PEW

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.

WILL THE MAJOR VICTORY MATė V. LHUANIA CONVCE SEIMAS TO REPEAL THE “ANTI-GAY PROPAGANDA” PROVISN?

“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.

WHERE EUROPE STANDS ON GAY MARRIAGE AND CIVIL UNNS

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.

GAY COUPLE CASE GIV LHUANIA'S HIGHT COURT A CHANCE TO STRENGTHEN RIGHTS PROTECTNS

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”. 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. 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. 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.

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.