Legal and social discrimination blight the small Baltic state’s LGBT+ community.
The Lithuanian government moved on Wednesday to discard a controversial law dubbed by critics as the “gay propaganda” law.
The notorious legislation - passed in 2009 - shields minors from information about same-sex marriage and LGBTQI issues.
Controversy surrounds its provision against info that “expresses contempt for family values [or] encourages… entry into a marriage and creation of a family other than stipulated in the Constitution”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Critics say it is homophobic and curbs freedom, though the ‘Law on the Protection of Minors from Negative Public Information’ does not explicitly mention the LGBTQ+ community.
Similar legislation was introduced in Russia to purportedly protect children from “gay propaganda”, which rights groups say has caused “significant stigma and harm toward LGBT people” and curbed freedom of expression, well-being and security.
The international court assessed the legislation after it was used to censor a children’s book, titled Amber Heart, which contained lines about same-sex relationships and marriage.
ECHR judges challenged the Lithuanian government’s argument that one story in the book, written by the late lesbian writer Neringa Dangvyde Macate, had promoted same-sex families over others.
LGBT rights are a contentious issue within Lithuanian politics, amid perceived legal and social discrimination against the community inside the country.
A survey from 2020 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found that 44% of Lithuania’s LGBT community had experienced harassment compared to the EU average of 38%.
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