Responded to Nausėda’s speeches in Brussels on LGBTQ: Lithuania has a law similar to Hungary

“It just came to our attention then. Apparently, the president had his own reasons for making such decisions. But at this point I would like to contextualize those options at the national level, and remember that Lithuania also has a specific article in the Law on Protection of Minors. of the Negative Impact of Public Information, which is very similar to the regulation introduced in Hungary.

In Lithuania, that article has not applied since 2014. This is a dead rule of law. There is currently a case pending before the European Court of Human Rights in Dangvydė against Lithuania, where the application of this specific legal rule in the censorship of public information is questioned, “said Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, member of the Faction for Freedom in the United States. Seimas. .

The parliamentarian hopes that the ECHR will make a decision in the near future.

“When it is established that this legal norm is in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights, I hope that in Lithuania and with the help of the president we will change that provision very quickly. Because it is not letters, but amendments to the law that solve these problems. “said TV Raskevičius.

Believe it is possible to cross the dividing line

The parliamentarian believes that on issues that also concern the rights of LGBTQ people, it is possible to bridge the gap resulting from differences of opinion.

“I am glad that we have been discussing these issues very actively lately, because there has been political silence for twenty years. Probably the fact that politicians avoided forming positions and expressing them clearly, and now creates a situation where those discussions are very heated, ”said TV Raskevičius.

G. Nausėda told reporters in Brussels that he expected same-sex relations to be regulated in Lithuania in the fall, after considering all the arguments and respecting the country’s Constitution and other laws, BNS wrote.

MP TV Raskevičius understood the president’s statement as an expectation that the Association Law will be adopted in the autumn. He does not see any contradiction in that law with the provisions of the Constitution.

“I remember 2019 again. The interpretation of the Constitutional Court (CC), which very clearly defined the concept of family, its content. KT also offers same-sex couples to protect the content of the concept of family, ”explained TV Raskevičius.

Širinskienė: the president constantly supports the traditional family

Agnė Širinskienė, a parliamentarian for the Green Peasants Group, interpreted the position of the head of state differently.

“He has declared his values ​​long before the elections, even during the election period. Now we see that the president supports both the traditional family and other traditional values, so such behavior is not surprising. It is completely consistent. On the other hand, I I really liked the president’s observation that we usually attack to condemn something, without even reading it, ”said A. Širinskienė.

Like TV Raskevičius, he agreed that Lithuania has similar legal regulation for issues like Hungary.

“Probably for this reason too, it would be very strange to criticize other states when they have similar regulations in their national legislation. As a result, the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that it should be attacked for signing without counting made me smile a little,” he said. A. Širinskienė.

The MEP said that in this case the ECHR would have the opportunity to speak on the matter.

“This will set a precedent not only for us, but also for other members of the Council of Europe, who are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights. We will look at the legal side, but otherwise it is already true that states are sovereign and therefore they generally don’t teach each other much how they should live. Especially when we talk about democratic states, “said A. Širinskienė.

More information on President G. Nausėda’s arguments can be found here.

The case is pending before the ECHR

According to the law, in Lithuania, information that has a negative impact on minors is recognized as that which “incites homosexual, bisexual or polygamous relationships”.

These provisions of the law came to the attention of the courts after a set of fairy tales was withdrawn from trade in Lithuania seven years ago, publicly naming the miraculous fairy tales as “compromised propaganda of homosexuality.”

The five-year trial due to such a decision was moved to the European Court of Human Rights, but the author of the book Neringa Dangvydė Macatė did not receive a final decision in the case: the writer died after a serious illness, the Lithuanian Human Rights Center portal manoteises.lt wrote.

Remember that the Heart of Amber, which appeared at the end of 2013, was detected a few months later by a group of Seimas members who applied to the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, which published the book. After receiving a letter from MPs, the University radically changed its position and withdrew the book from commerce, publicly calling it “committed homosexual propaganda.” Subsequently, the University agreed to resume the sale of books under the “N-14” brand. The author disagreed with this marking and, with the help of human rights defenders, continued the litigation process, which ended in failure in the Lithuanian courts.