LGBT rights in Lithuania

Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Lithuania, but neither gay-marriage nor civil same-sex partnership are available. Although homosexuality was decriminalised in 1993, the historic legacy has resulted in limited rights for gays and lesbians. Protection against discrimination was legislated for as part of the criteria for European Union accession and in 2010 the first gay pride parade took place in Vilnius.

Attitudes

Negative attitudes against gay and lesbian men and women remain entrenched. A European Union member poll, conducted in 2006, showed Lithuania at 17% support for gay marriage and 12% for rights of adoption. A poll conducted in 2009 showed that only 16% of Lithuanians would approve of a gay pride march in the capital Vilnius and 81.5% of respondents considered homosexuality as a perversion, disease or paraphilia. Another study, conducted in 2009, showed that 42% of respondents would agree on a same-sex civil partnership law, 12% – same-sex marriage, 13% – right to adopt.

There is only a small gay community in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda. Elsewhere in Lithuania, however, the sparse population means there is no active or prominent gay scene.

Since the country's 2004 EU accession, the situation of the LGBT community has neither improved, nor worsened, mainly because the Government feels not obliged to actively protect LGBT rights any more despite the pressure from the EU. A media campaign against LGBT people was launched by the tabloid Respublika in 2004 – 2006. While about two thirds of the members of parliament declared their hostility to LGBT people during the campaign.

Public laws

Same-sex sexual activity, which was illegal in the Soviet Union, was legalized in Lithuania in 1993. The age of consent was equalized in 2004, at 14 years of age in order to fulfil European Union accession criteria against discrimination.

Discrimination protections

According to the Law on Equal Treatment 2005, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is banned in the areas of employment, education and access to goods and services.

The amendments to the Law on Equal Treatment repealing the prohibition to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation were under consideration by Seimas (Lithuania's parliament) since 5 June 2008, but they were rejected when Seimas adopted the new version of the Law on 17 June 2008.

Right to public expression

Despite of the advanced anti-discrimination laws, during the last years LGBT people faced some initiatives to limit their rights to public expression.

Pride Parade in Vilnius

In 2007, Vilnius City Council refused to grant the permission for the public meetings of LGBT people on May and October citing "security reasons".

Vilnius' city council allowed Lithuania's gay pride parade, Baltic Pride 2010, to take place on Saturday, 8 May 2010. A court stopped the parade from proceeding shortly before the parade was due to take place after the Attorney General acted. The Attorney General, Raimundas Petrauskas, cited security as the reason for his involvement. President Dalia Grybauskaitė voiced her opposition to the court ruling through her spokesperson citing the constitutional right to peaceful assembly. This decision was overturned by a higher court just one day before the parade took place. With a heavy police presence, Baltic Pride 2010 took place to much violence from opponents of gay rights.

Law on the Protection of Minors

The amendments to the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information, effectively banning the "promotion of homosexual relations" and allegedly aimed at limiting the rights of LGBT people, were proposed in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The Lithuanian parliament had approved the new version of the law which was scheduled to be enacted on 1 March 2010. Even though it was vetoed by the president citing "lack of definitions", the veto was repealed by the Parliament. By that time in its wording the law forbid "propaganda of homosexual, bisexual or polygamous relations". According to some politicians who voted in favor, the possibility of defining "propaganda" should be left to lawyers.

On 17 September 2009 the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the law and requesting the EU Fundamental Rights Agency to issue a legal opinion on it. On 10 November 2009, the Lithuanian parliament (Seimas) answered by adopting a resolution requesting the Government to seek the invalidation of the EP Resolution, which it condemned as an unlawful act. The EU Fundamental Rights Agency wrote to the European Parliament that it was not going to submit the requested legal opinion, given that it had no mandate to evaluate the legislation of Member States.

The newly elected president expressed her strong disapproval to the law and formed a commission to elaborate a draft in order to repeal the discriminatory provisions. On 22 December 2009 the clauses banning the promotion among minors of "homosexual, bisexual, and polygamous relations" were in fact eliminated, but as a compromise, the paragraph was replaced by a "ban to spread information that would promote sexual relations or other conceptions of concluding a marriage or creating a family other than established in the Constitution or the Civil Code". It has been argued that this provision is the first step towards instituting ban on criticizing Government and its decisions and thus – a menace to the democracy in the country. Proponents of the law claim to be led by a desire to protect traditional family and children, some of them have expressed an opinion that the law would ban any information in public about homosexuality, regardless of its accessibility to minors or ban any public discussions and homosexuality related events. The new version has been signed by the president motivating "the homophobic provisions have been repealed".

Significantly, the same law forbids mocking and defiance on the grounds of the sexual orientation. The law enacts a number of other amendments, such as prohibition to promote unhealthy nutrition to minors, ban on information that "profanes family values", depiction of hypnosis etc.

The amendment has been compared sometimes to Section 28, the act which prohibited discussion of homosexuality in UK schools.

It is to be noted that since coming into effect, only one case of the attempt to apply the law is known in public, and that is trying to ban the Gay Pride in 2010.

Public Information Act

Article 31.1 of the Public Information Act, amended on 30 September 2010 (the new revision came into effect on 18 October 2010), states that Any advertisement or a commercial audiovisual message may not announce information humiliating a person's dignity, discriminating on grounds of race, sex or ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or faith, handicap or age; these messages may not depict or promote a sexual orientation, offend religious feelings or political convictions, promote a behaviour dangerous to health, safety or a behaviour, especially harmful to environment. It has been argued that the might also ban any depictions of heterosexual orientation as well.

Amendment to the Code of Administrative Offences

It has been proposed to amend the Code of Administrative Offences so that it includes a provision "A public propagation of homosexual relations is punishable with a fine from 2000 to 10000 litas." The Parliament has approved the debate to take place, although the majority of MPs were not present to vote. In order to enact the amendment, two more vote sessions are needed.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

There are several provisions banning the recognition of same-sex couples in Lithuania. Article 38 of the Lithuanian Constitution states "Marriage shall be concluded upon the free mutual consent of a man and a woman". This is interpreted as a ban on same-sex-marriage. Same-sex marriage is also explicitely banned in Article 3.12 of the country's Civil Code stating that "Marriage shall be concluded with a person of the opposite sex only". Moreover, the country's Civil Code allows the institution of partnerships to be approved by the legislative authorities, although Article 3.229 of the Code restricts them to heterosexual couples.

In 2008, a new type of guidelines – "National Conception of Family Policy" – has been adopted. The guidelines for future national legislation defines marriage as a "union between a man and a woman" and uses it in entire text, implicitely excluding same-sex couples.

Gender identity/expression

Article 2.27 of the Civil Code allows any non-married person to change legal gender if this is medically possible. The second paragraph states, however, that the procedures for changing gender should be led according to a separate law. The Parliament and the Government of Lithuania refuses to take any actions on adopting such a law after it lost the case L v. Lithuania in the European Court of Human Rights in 2007. Since then the gender change became possible only with a court's decision.

In March 2009, several members in the Parliament proposed to eliminate this provision.

Adoption and family planning

In general couples must be married to adopt in Lithuania, and subsequently same-sex couples are not permitted to adopt. The article 3.210 of the Civil Code states, however, that in exceptional cases single persons may be granted. In that case the decision goes to social workers. Nevertheless, the Commission of Family and Child Affairs of the Lithuanian Parliament "expressed a concern if there were enough legal barriers to prevent people of non-traditional orientation to adopt". Specialists have confirmed that barriers are in place, though it is possible to circumvent them. In consequence, the adoption by single homosexuals in practice is not legally possible.

Military service

Gays and lesbians are allowed to serve openly in the military.

Political support

Some politicians, mostly representatives of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party ( Marija Aušrinė Pavilionienė ) and Liberal Movement of the Republic of Lithuania ( Leonidas Donskis ) have expressed their support for LGBT rights and initiated few laws and resolutions supporting LGBT rights. The main organizations defending LGBT rights in Lithuania are Tolerant Youth Association and the Lithuanian Gay League. One of the members of parliament Rokas Žilinskas is the first member of parliament who was outed as gay.