World Wide Wave

5 Mar 2013

Lithuania: European Union spotlight is catalyst for change

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When the European Union presidency settles in Lithuania this July, the Lithuanian Gay League (LGL) sees this as opportunity:

“We believe this special political context provides us a unique opportunity to talk about tolerance, diversity and social cohesion in Lithuanian society,” said Thomas from the LGL.

The LGL has intentionally scheduled their pride march for late July, after it has assumed the Presidency of the European Union.

Still the local government has relocated the march. The LGL is appealing this decision. “We believe it infringes on effective exercise of the right to peaceful assembly,” explained Thomas. The decision of the court should come in April.

Although Thomas argued that the political atmosphere “gets better every day,” President Dalia Grybauskaitė recently announced that talk of civil unions is too premature. Thomas takes issue with this:

“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… there is no point in speaking to people who are using your human rights as their tool for gaining political influence.”

Despite his optimism, Thomas describes the upcoming challenges: “It’s not the Pride that’s the challenge, it’s the intolerance and homophobia prevailing in society.” As Lithuania celebrates the 20th year of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the LGL hopes to get more public figures speaking openly about LGBT issues, and build a “snowball effect” of improving LGBT tolerance.

Learn more and listen to the full podcast on W3JOY’s Lithuania webpage.