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

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

Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people Lhuania face legal and social challeng not experienced by non-LGBT cizens. Although homosexualy was crimalised 1993, the historic legacy of crimalisatn has rulted limed rights for LGBT people.

Protectn agast discrimatn was legislated for as part of the creria for European Unn accsn, and 2010 the first gay pri para took place Vilni. Var public opn polls have found very limed support for same-sex marriage, and opposn to same-sex marriage and homosexualy general ntu to be wispread Lhuanian society.

Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedChangg Genr✔ Legal, surgery not requiredNon-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. Ambiguo “Gay propaganda” is -facto banned sce 2009 but the law has not been enforced for a long as punishmentLGBTQ+ ntent is rtricted for mors Lhuania sce 2009. Lbians, gays, bisexuals permted, transgenr people banned Only 26 untri allow transgenr ary service, Lhuania is not one of themBlood donatns by MSMs Lhuania?

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

(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 LIFE LHUANIA

LGL subsequently submted s shadow report on the LGBT* human rights suatn the untry to the UN and met wh 25 different ernment reprentativ at the UN office Geneva, urgg them to draw the Lhuanian ernment’s attentn to human rights vlatns agast LGBT* persons the monly vlated rights Lhuania clu:Right to Freedom of ExprsnRight to Equaly and Non-discrimatnRight to EdutnRight to Freedom of Peaceful AssemblyRight to Life, Liberty and Secury of a PersonRight to PrivacyRight to HealthAnti-gay propaganda legislatnThe Law on the Protectn of Mors agast the Detriment Effect of Public Informatn, which is clud Lhuanian legislatn, reads that “public rmatn shall be attributed to rmatn which has a trimental effect on mors […] which exprs ntempt for fay valu, enurag the ncept of entry to a marriage and creatn of a fay other than stipulated the Constutn and the Civil Co”. )Homophobic and/or transphobic legislative iativThere were ten openly homophobic and transphobic legislative iativ the Parliament so far.

XIIP-687 seeks to tablish that the cricism of homosexualy and attempts to change someone’s sexual orientatn would not qualify as discrimatn or harassment on the ground of sexual orientatn.

”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.

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

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.