ADVOCACY FOR GAYS AND LESBIANS IN LITHUANIA

Description of legal situation

Independent Lithuania inherited Soviet prejudice and taboo on homosexuality. Despite the existence of constitutional guarantees of equality and privacy, consensual gay male acts remained criminalized for three years since Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Before its repeal in 1993, the infamous article of the Penal Code existed in its Soviet edition:

Article 122. Paragraph 1. Man Lying With Man: Sexual relations between men (man lying with man) shall be punishable by incarceration for a period of up to three years.

Lithuania was the last among the three Baltic countries to abolish severe penalties for consensual homosexual acts. The repeal of sodomy law on June 11, 1993 had been passed in the Parliament without any public discussion or input from gay people. It was done under the international pressure of homosexual groups in Western Europe (members of ILGA) and the insistence of the Council of Europe that Lithuania conform to basic human rights standards in order to gain membership.

Only Paragraph 1 of Article 122 was removed. Article 122 is still in force with its Paragraph 2, which provides penalties of up to eight years for sexual relationship between men involving violence or threats or committed in relationship to minor under 18 years.

The title of the article remains the same - "Man Lying With Man"- and creates a certain misunderstanding among general public about the legal status of consensual gay sex. This article also keeps a discriminatory age of consent for gays at 18. If a man has consensual sex with a sexually mature 17 1/2-year-old male, he will be punished by incarceration of up to eight years, while if a man has consensual sex with a sexually mature 17 1/2-year-old female, he will not be persecuted.

Lesbian sex acts are not mentioned in the Penal Code.

In Lithuania, there are no laws to protect lesbians and gay men against discrimination. Sexual orientation is not included in the Constitution as a criterion for protection from discrimination, but it might appear in the new Penal Code.

Lithuanian Ministry Of Justice published a revised version of the new draft Penal Code. Article 160 "Discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, sex, origin, religion or other group membership" provides for imprisonment of up to 3 years for "acts, which were aimed to prevent population group or its member to participate equally in political, economical, social, cultural or work activity because of their nationality, race, sex, sexual orientation, origin, religion or other group membership". Although the authors omit "sexual orientation" in the article's title it is included in the text for the first time in the legal history of the country.

Article 161 of the draft document "Instigation against national, racial, ethnic, religious or other population groups" provides for up to 3 years imprisonment for persons and companies which jeer, disdain or otherwise show bias towards belonging to national, racial, ethnic, religious or other population groups. Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Justice Gintaras Svedas told BNS news agency , that "other population groups" also includes sexual minorities.

Earlier Vice-Minister of Justice also acknowledged that under the current Penal Code of Lithuania the age of consent for "sexually mature" heterosexuals and lesbians is 14 and for gay men 18 years of age. "Such regulation has also caused criticism of Lithuanian lawyers - a voluntary satisfaction of sexual lust between pubescent men can not be rated as a crime, since in this case there is no violation of sexual self-determination or inviolability" Vice-Minister Gintaras Svedas wrote in his explanation to European Committee of Seimas (Parliament). He told BNS news agency, that the new draft Penal Code does not contain such discriminatory regulation.

The first draft of the new Penal Code (published in 1996) did not include "sexual orientation", "other group" or related terms to protect lesbians and gays. Lithuanian Gay League (LGL) responded to Parliament and Government institutions with non-discriminatory legislation campaign supported by mainstream media.

It is expected that the new Penal Code will be adopted by the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament) this year. Hopefully, the provisions to protect lesbians and gays will be passed although they might be opposed by the Conservative and Christian Democrat majority coalition.

Another Vice-Minister of Justice Rasa Budbergyte recently commented on same sex marriages. She said, that Lithuanian society is not ready to accept same sex marriages. A new draft of the Civil Code specifically bans same sex marriage by Article 3.12 of book 3 "Ban to marry for same sex persons".

"The majority of people in Lithuania are Roman Catholics and maintain antagonistic attitude towards homosexuality", she told BNS.

There are few applications for refugee status in general. Sexual orientation is not specifically recognised.

Social Situation and Ethical Aspects

The international research on human values reveals that Lithuania had the lowest index on acceptance of homosexuality in Europe in 1991. In 1997 it went up from 1,3 to 1,86 but is still amongst the lowest together with Poland and Hungary. Negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men are extremely strong among older nationalist Catholic citizens. Unfortunately this outlook is reflected in the policies of social institutions, particularly education and health services, which for the most part, deny the very existence of lesbians
and gay men in this society.

Responding to a question regarding the status of homosexuals in Lithuania at the April 1994 Council of Europe meeting, President Algirdas Brazauskas said: ”Lithuania has a lot of problems, and the problem of homosexuality is not very big.” He promised to deal with problems of gay people with the respect to international practice. Later he told a Diena journalist that “ It was the most difficult and unpleasant question I had to answer.” He has not made a statement on the issue since. Acting President Valdas Adamkus continues the ten years long tradition of ignorance towards lesbian and gay citizens by denying to speak about our problems in public.

President Valdas Adamkus received credentials of the new Australian Ambassador to Lithuania Stephen Brady, who introduced in the ceremony his boyfriend, an architect, Peter Steven in April 1999. This was an unprecedented move in Lithuanian diplomatic history.

According to the press, Adamkus was not shocked by the "open demonstration of sexual orientation", although, foreign envoys to Lithuania used to bring their wives to the ceremony of handing ambassadorial credentials until now. "The president does not care who is accompanying the ambassador," presidential spokeswoman said.

This "scandal" revealed the scope of homophobia among the Members of Parliament. Christian Democrat Grazulis proposed to boycott the Australian Ambassador. Right wing nationalists Patackas and Buskevicius labelled him as "pederast" and "pervert" in their interview to Russian television channel. No Member of Parliament supported the gay ambassador by challenging these public insults.

To have both the Government and the Parliament dismiss the issue of advocacy for lesbian and gay human rights is to deny the existence of discrimination in way that has real political repercussions. One is to relegate lesbians and gays to the margins of society, where they are not represented in legal documents and the public life, this allowing stereotypes to perpetuate.

In honour of the “Year of Tolerance” Lithuania’s Parliament (Seimas) passed a statement on February 15, 1995, which denounced “ideology which instigates racial hate, violence and discrimination, and any actions which create stress and distrust between different racial, ethnic, national, religious or social groups.” The failure to recognize discrimination based on sexual orientation in such documents makes it look like there are still limits to tolerance in Lithuania.

Similarly, the 1995 seminar on tolerance and democracy hosted by the Teacher’s Institute at the Lithuanian College of Democracy declined a request by Vladimir Simonko, chairman of the Lithuanian Gay League (LGL) to participate in the plenary sessions.

Journalists are the only advocates of gay people in the transforming Lithuanian society. The first positive coming out stories of LGL activists Irena Vanglikaite, Ausra Chopaite, Vladimir Simonko and Eduardas Platovas were published on the front page of the biggest national daily Lietuvos rytas in October 1995 to commemorate the International coming out day. Private media covers lesbian and gay news from the world. Local TV talk shows usually discuss homosexuality with a hero in mask after LGL members with open faces suffered from violence and harassment after public coming-out on air in 1995.

Homophobic views are expressed in some state run media and emerging tabloids.

In this overwhelmingly Catholic country, both gay rights activists and many of their opponents claim that the church is anti-gay.

While, in theory, following the Pope’s stance on homosexual love, the church is, in practice, keeping quiet on the issue. Vytautas Alisauskas, editor of the Catholic magazine New Hearth says, “the church and laymen here in Lithuania are not thinking about this at the moment”.

In the absence of official denunciation or approval, the church’s teaching enters the hazy fields of interpretation and representation. The young secretary, who describes herself as a practicing Catholic, says “I haven’t heard the church say anything explicit about lesbians and gays, but I think it has a bad opinion of them”.

Catholic church officials condemned the first symbolic marriage ceremony of two gay men in one of biggest churches of capital Vilnius in 1997 with a public statement.

Violence against gay and lesbian people is growing up with increasing visibility. The 1995 robbery and assaults in Vilnius gay bar were not reported to the police in fair to loose the customers. In absence of hate crime on the books police can only issue a small fine for the organizers of harassment against open homosexuals.

Since 1993 LGL has received a numerous requests from lawyers in UK, Canada, USA, France and Belgium claiming that Lithuanian lesbians and gays are seeking asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation persecution.

The first ever country case involving dismissal from work on the grounds of a person's sexual orientation had opened in October 1999 in Vilnius. Stasys Dimbelis was sacked as a consultant on gay problems at the Lithuanian AIDS Center in July 1999. He claims this was because of his sexual orientation and wants either reinstatement or compensation. The director of the AIDS Center Saulius Caplinskas says some staff were fired after a decision to concentrate on treating AIDS rather than on prevention. The hearings continue at the time of writing of this report.

Developments

The gay movement in Lithuania started in 1992 with several groups holding social gatherings in Vilnius. Community building was prevented by the Ministry of Justice, which denied the registration of the first national lesbian and gay association in 1992 in respect of existing sodomy law. 1994 ILGA Eastern European Conference in Palanga, Lithuania gave a model for organizing the local lesbian and gay human rights groups. Their development and cooperation was continued with 1995 ILGA Anti-discrimination project. The first Lesbian and Gay Center was opened in Vilnius on January 20, 1995. Unfortunately, it had to close after one and half years due to the lack of funds.

Two publications Naglis and Amsterdamas hit the streets in 1994 but soon were deemed "erotic and violence promoting" and banned for distribution through public press outlets. The ban led to financial bankruptcy of the publishers.

Since its official registration in May 1995, Lithuanian Gay League (LGL) is the only national organization visibly involved in human rights issues. It is a mixed organization with lesbian group Solida concerned on women issues. LGL publishes a newsletter, runs a website and telephone helpline, holds seminars twice a year with a support of exclusively Western donors. Activists have to use their private apartments for work and meetings.

There is merely one gay disco open on weekends in capital Vilnius. Local communities in other major cities Kaunas and Klaipeda socialize in small bars on weekends only. Two Internet sites are the most visible examples of lesbian and gay subculture and vital resources of information and everyday communication.

Political parties, state authorities and even representatives of some international institutions ignore the invitations to participate in seminars on lesbian and gay rights. LGL managed to start a dialogue with some NGOs although there is a strong opposition from another including human rights NGO. Sexual minorities are excluded from the Civil Society programs of few local foundations as well as social and cultural agendas of municipalities.

Reports about the situation of lesbians and gays were requested by the embassies of the USA and Germany but never by the Lithuanian Government.

Eduardas Platovas

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