Fun Fast Facts:
- Rapidly changing laws, but homophobia is entrenched.
- First gay pride parade held in 2010.
- Article 38 of the Lithuanian Constitution states ‘Marriage shall be concluded upon the free mutual consent of a man and a woman’.
- Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė just declared talk of civil unions is “too premature”; 17% support for gay marriage.
- Gender change is legal for non-marriaged people.
- Gays and lesbians can serve openly in the military.
- Social Democrats and Liberals movement both express their support for LGBTQ rights.
LGBT-friendly organisation: Lithuania Gay League
- Only NGO which works for LGBTQI issues in Lithuania.
- Focuses on strategic litigation, lobbying, advocacy.
- Working to ensure the Baltic Pride march on July 27, 2013.
W3JOY interviewed Thomas, from Lithuania Gay League
Biggest issues currently facing LGL:
The Baltic Pride March, the upcoming one. We got permission from the municipality, but the issue now is that they unilaterally relocated the march….We have appealed against this decision in the national courts because we believe it infringes on effective exercise of the right to peaceful assembly. The decision of the court should come in April.
The second issue is now we’ve started a very vivid public debate on registered partnerships as you can see from the very public statements from the high-level politicians. We don’t believe it will be adopted anytime soon, but we think it is a very unique opportunity to speak about it in reasonable terms and not based on emotions.
On the recent statement by President Dalia Grybauskaitė that talk of civil unions is too premature:
We have difficulties in explaining this position of the president because we generally believe that no human rights issue can be premature in a democratic society.
We expect a more embracing position when she is elected the second time because she will hold the presidency for another five years.
We have several politicians who are very homophobic and trying to build their political capital on homophobic rhetoric. We generally believe there is no point in speaking to people who are using your human rights as their tool for gaining political influence.
The biggest problem in the political context is there are some very vocal politicians who are very homophobic, but there are no politicans who will generally stand for LGBT rights because it is still taught that LGBT issues are controversial.
On Lithuania’s upcoming Pride march:
Usually July is bit late date for the Baltic group for the pride season in general. Basically, we selected the date strategically due to the two following reasons. The first one is that Lithuania will hold the Euroepean Union presidency starting from July 1. The second reason is that this year Lithuania marks a very special anniversary, twenty years of the decriminisation of homosexuality.
We believe this special political context provides us a unique opportunity to talk about tolerance, diversity and social cohesion in Lithuanian society.
Usually, homophobic rhetoric and homophobic policy is not acceptable at the European Union level.
It’s very interesting to note how the local politicians are trying to deal with this situation…they are trying to present that the LGBT march is going to be one of the President’s challenges…it’s not the Pride that’s the challenge, it’s the intolerance and homophobia prevailing in society.
On progress:
We definitely feel safe….because Lihuanian society is very sensitive to violence and does not approve at all.
There’s a lot of work to do, but the situation gets better every single year and I think every single day.
On coming out:
There’s still a huge stigma coming out.
It’s a building-up progress, a snowball effect. When you get one public celebrity coming out and speaking openly about these issues, other people might get encouraged and do it as well.
Published on: March 4, 2013 @ 2:54
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:53 — 19.8MB)