New Australian ambassador reveals his homosexuality as he meets Adamkus

Vilnius, Apr 7 (ELTA) - New Australian Ambassador to Lithuania Stephen Brady, based in Stockholm, has presented on Wednesday credentials to President Valdas Adamkus.

He is the fourth envoy of Australia and succeeded Ambassadress Judith Pead.

Brady also introduced his boyfriend, an architect Peter Steven, which was an unprecedented case in the diplomatic history of Lithuania.

The diplomat, who revealed his homosexuality some time ago, said he had lived with his gay partner for ten years.

The envoy mentioned the fact that Australia was home for a large Lithuanian community, counting some 17 thousand persons, and enumerated a few famous artists of Lithuanian descent living in the country -- a sculptor Teisutis Zikaras, painters Henrikas Salkauskas and Ieva Pocius, and ballerina Regina Plokstys.

He described the Lithuania-Australia economic links as growing, and expressed hope development of commercial co-operation would be bolstered significantly by last year's bilateral agreement on promotion and protection of investments.

In a return speech Adamkus noted Vilnius saluted continuous efforts of Australian authorities to build up and keep peace not only in the Pacific Ocean region but also in the whole world.

"We welcome the bonds of our nations on international scene, in what both countries support each other's candidatures in elections to various international organisations. Lithuania hopes these links will be continued in the future as well," the president said.

A newly appointed Australian ambassador has acted as envoy to Sweden since last year. He too services diplomatic relations with the other Scandinavian countries and Baltic states.

Gay Ambassador Brings his Companion to Credentials Ceremony

New Australian ambassador to Scandinavian and Baltic countries brought to the presidency his male companion in an unprecedented move in Lithuanian diplomatic history, the Respublika reported.

President Valdas Adamkus received credentials of the new Australian Ambassador to Lithuania Stephen Brady, who introduced in the ceremony his friend, an architect, Peter Steven.

According to the daily 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. He is interested in how the ambassador is to carry out his direct responsibilities and to develop Lithuanian and Australian ties," presidential spokeswoman Violeta Gaizauskaite said.

Agency ELTA, April 4, 1999

Anything But Gay In Vilnius

By Maureen Sharp

Arturas is 27 and still hiding from his father. After living for two years in Kiev as a completely open gay, Arturas returned home to Vilnius and a double life.

To his childhood friends and family, he was a straight son, engaged to a nice girl - just one of the boys. Only a small group of friends (including his fiancee’) were aware that Arturas was also dating a married man.

All that changed last month when he was forcibly dragged from the closet at a gay cafe by his furious sister who, unable to cope with the idea that her brother is homosexual, reacted by screaming and threatening to break windows.

A month later, Arturas’ sister is no longer vowing to kill him, but his mother still refused to talk about it and has asked him not to tell his father.

“It will be a very intense moment in our family when my father finds out,” Arturas anticipates gloomily. “I understand very well that in our country it is a very big problem to be gay. I am in the closet not for myself - but for my family; their friends would not understand”.

An Aids Center survey of Vilnius’ teenagers’ attitudes toward homosexuality conducted in April indicates that Arturas’ fears are justified. On the 500 participating 16 and 17 years olds, only 19 percent thought lesbians and gays were normal, and 43 percent believed homosexual intercourse should be a criminal act.

Discrimination

“I don’t like gays because they spread diseases,” said one 24-year-old secretary. “Also, it’s not according to the laws of nature or the laws of God.”

While recent American studies into the genetics of sexuality indicate that homosexuality is, in fact, related to the laws of nature, the laws of God take more interpreting. 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”.

Under Article 1 of the Soviet Criminal Code, being gay was a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. Lithuania, although the first Baltic country to gain independence, was the last to repeal this article of the penal code, largely under the pressure from the Council of Europe which it was vying to join. Prior to the decriminalization of homosexuality on July 3 1993, at least two applications to register non-government organizations in support of gay rights were rejected because it was illegal to be gay.

Eduardas Platovas, coordinator of the Lithuanian branch of the joint international Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and PHARE project, claims the Soviet legacy, with respect to gays, extends beyond the law, having touched the very psyche of Lithuanian 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.” Later he told a Diena journalist that “ It was the most difficult question I had to answer.” He has not made a statement on the issue since.

Alisauskas neatly echoes this sentiment when he claims “homosexuals are not a problem in the church.”

To have both the government and the church dismiss the issue of homosexuality is to deny the existence of discrimination in way that have 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 mass media, this allowing stereotypes to perpetuate.

In honor of the “Year of Tolerance” Lithuania’s parliament (Seimas) passed a statement on February 15 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.” Platovas believes that 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 July 7 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.

On February 2, the ethical commission for the press, under the Minister of Justice, classified the political and cultural gay newsletter Amsterdamas as “erotica and violence-promoting.” Protests by journalists led to a March decision to allow limited distribution (not including bus and train stations, on Vilnius’ main street, or areas of close proximity to churches). The classification stands.

A closed society

“People are so very ignorant that they can’t even imagine that people can be gay,” says one man, who fears that his career would be jeopardized should his name be used in this article.

This also often applies to young people trying to come to terms with their sexuality. “For the majority of guys,” explains Simonko, indicating the quiet gay cafe he is sitting in, “even coming here is a big issue because it means coming out to yourself.”

At present, only Vilnius offers the respite of an official gay space. Lesbians and gays need to keep a very low profile, according to Aleksandras Zolotuchinas, chairman of the Lithuanian Movement for Sexual Equality (LMSE), because “Lithuania is a country of small towns everybody knows everything.”

Though a lesbian activist group, Sapho, is in the process of forming under the leadership of the woman who uses a pseudonym because her mother thinks she is straight, lesbians for the most part are even closeted than gay men in Lithuania. Zolotuchinas believes this is related to the intense pressure Lithuanian women face to have children and raise traditional families.

Romas Petrauskas claims to be the first gay to out himself publicly in Lithuania. As part of a lobby to repeal the infamous article 1 of the criminal code, he gave his name in an interview with a popular radio station M-1 in 1991 at the tender age of 18.

He has been beaten up twice by roaming gay-bashers. “The first time,” he relates matter-of-factly, “it was a group of youngsters who used gay guys to take money from them. I couldn’t ask for protection from the police because (being gay) I was illegal. I told them I wouldn’t give anything - not one ruble. “The next time it wasn’t commercial aggression, it was just homophobic aggression.”

Unlike many Western countries, “there is no organized action of queer-bashing in Lithuania,” says Platovas. The gay club he runs with Simonko receives paid and organized protection.

“The police are slow and ineffective,” says Platovas. “The mafia is an effective structure.” He adds with an ironic smile. “In terms of institutions and businesses they were one of the first to recognize us. They are proceeding normally - it’s just business.”

To a pluralist society

The World Conference of Lesbians and Gays begins June 18 in Rio de Janeiro without Baltic representation, but both LGL and LMSE are pleased with the progress being made on the home front. “Something is changing,” says Zolotuchinas. “There are steps being made although they are small.”

Simonko maintains that “Lithuania is particularly repressive and difficult.” Platovas agrees. In a way, we have to do more too. The initiative has to be ours.” He is insure of what will happen when these still waters are stirred, observing that “when we stay quiet, we don’t have this opposition from society.”

The Baltic Observer June 22 - 28, 1995

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