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Despite the refusal of the Kaunas City Municipality to grant permission for the LGBT marches in Laisvės Alley, the court ordered the municipal administration to coordinate the route of the march, which should take place on Saturday, September 1.
Pending almost the last day of the appeal, the municipality filed an appeal..
The Kaunas Pride organizers are preparing for the march.
One of the organizers, Viktorija Kolbešnikova, hopes for a positive court decision and that everything goes according to plan..
V. Matijošaitis, responding to journalists’ questions about the planned LGBT march in Kaunas on Monday, said that they are all the same as him.
“For me, all citizens are citizens and let the courts decide,” he said.
Arno Strumila / 15min photo / Detoxification: cycling and picnic for LGBTQ + families
However, he was asked if the municipality had found out the source of the stench in town last week, V. Matijošaitis pretended to understand that he might stink from the planned march.
He laughed and replied, “Maybe, wow, Saturday is coming. I’m not kidding. “
He remembered A. Zuokas’s speech
The chairman of the Seimas Human Rights Committee, Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, described V. Matijošaitis’s statement as an expression of political bad taste.
What is happening in Kaunas now reminds him of the processes that took place in Vilnius in 2013 in preparation for the Baltic Pride march on the capital’s main street, Gediminas Avenue.
“Hearing current jokes from the mayor of Kaunas, I remember the statement of the then mayor of Vilnius Artūras Zuokas.
He then told a television camera that despite appealing to the court over decisions to organize Baltic Pride on Gediminas Avenue, he was in no way homophobic from political views, as he was wearing a blue shirt that day. .
How can you judge that laugh? As I mentioned, such as political miscommunication and impartiality, ”TVRaskevičius commented.
He stressed that it is the duty and duty of every politician to guarantee the constitutional rights of citizens. One of them is for peaceful gatherings.
“It is very disappointing that politicians allow themselves to selectively apply protection to different groups in society. Although the right to exercise regardless of sexual orientation or political opinions must be guaranteed,” said the head of the Seimas Human Rights Committee .
Photo by Lukas Balandi / 15min / Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius
TVRaskevičius hopes that the court will urgently consider the complaint of the Kaunas city municipal administration regarding the march and make a decision before the event scheduled for Saturday.
Otherwise, according to him, a situation of legal uncertainty would develop in our state, when the responsible institutions are unable to make a decision in time and the events occur naturally in response to certain impulses from society.
“We saw such a situation in June, when an unauthorized family march was held for three days near the Seimas and other government objects in Vilnius. I really hope that this situation will be avoided in Kaunas on Saturday.
And I plan to attend the event if there are appropriate decisions from the relevant authorities. This is when the event will be sanctioned, ”said TVRaskevičius.
Evaluate negatively
The director of the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights, Jūratė Juškaitė, stated that she evaluated the statement of V. Matijošaitis unequivocally in a negative way.
According to her, until now in the public space, the communication of the municipality of the city of Kaunas in the marches has been quite limited, as if it were an appeal to rational issues, to say that the judicial process, the appeal of the judicial decision first instance has nothing. to do with the visibility of the municipality, talk about issues related to the LGBT + community.
In this case, the mayor probably broke through, which made it appear that the coordination of the event tour was stagnant. It is simply an elementary lack of respect and apparently a lack of respect for this community in some way worthy of respect. He said that they are all the same as him, apparently, however, they are not all the same, ”said the human rights defender.
Photo by Severina Venckutė / Jūratė Juškaitė
According to J.Juškaitė, people can have different points of view, look at the same issues differently and imagine the implementation of the rights of the LGBT community.
However, he emphasized that such “jokes” as V. Matijošaitis have nothing to do with respectful communication, trying to listen, not mocking, not humiliating, developing discussion and mobilizing society.
“In this place, the mayor of Kaunas probably just registered among the politicians that we see at the national political level, who do not see ethics, polite communication, try to focus, but not divide, they are despised as something important to our society .
It is unfortunate that recently politicians, perhaps also some public figures, who try to mobilize their constituents through homophobic and transphobic speeches and arguments, have in fact increased in recent times and this is worrying ”, emphasized J. Juškaitė.
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