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The municipality’s decision not to issue a march permit was appealed to the court by the union on May 1, which formally requested the march. LGBT people would like to celebrate them on September 4th.
According to the original plan, the community members intended to march from the City Hall to the Plaza de la Independencia.
The Kaunas Municipality immediately rejected the request, because due to the reconstruction of Vilnius Street, it would simply be impossible to walk that route. The organizers of the march provided two more possible routes, but they were also rejected.
The court announced that it was not actually possible to march from City Hall to Independence Square at this time, but ordered the Kaunas municipality to coordinate the proposed third route before 11 a.m. on September 1.
The march is expected to begin at Independence Square at noon, march to the building marked at 99 Laisvės Alley and return to the starting point by the same route. The march should last 3 hours.
The court has stated that the Constitution guarantees the right to hold peaceful demonstrations and that the law requires the police to guarantee security during such demonstrations.
This decision can still be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania.
Under the latest proposal, LGBT activists would like to march down Liberty Avenue from Independence Square and return. The event is scheduled to take place from 12 to 17 hours, the march can be attended by 1-3 thousand. people.
During the examination of the dispute in court, it suddenly became clear that on the same day a large two-day celebration for children is planned in the center of Kaunas, in which up to 6,000 people.
The refusal to issue a permit for the LGBT marches was motivated by security, which would be extremely difficult to guarantee at Laisvės Alley.
Before announcing the court decision, the mayor of Kaunas, Visvaldas Matijošaitis, avoided commenting on a possible sequence of events.
“It just came to our knowledge then. For me, all people are residents of Kaunas, I need to live beautifully,” reasoned V. Matijošaitis.
On Thursday, about half an hour before the start of the hearing, LGBT supporters appeared at the courthouse on A. Mickevičiaus Street, guarding multi-colored flags and posters. Among them it was possible to see the famous Lithuanian swimmer, Olympic champion Rūta Meilutytė, but she did not actively participate in the event.
