A proposal to ban
same-sex marriage in Lithuania is unnecessary because
such marriages are already illegal, said chairman of the
Lithuanian parliament's Legal Committee, Julius
Sabatauskas. If passed, the measure would make
Lithuania the second European Union state to
constitutionally ban same-sex marriage, after Latvia
passed such an amendment earlier this month.
But according to
the Baltic News Service, Sabatauskas, of the ruling
Social Democrats, said he was astonished by the intention of
Conservative MP Irena Degutiene to start collecting
signatures in January in support of an amendment to
the constitution to ban marriages between persons of
the same sex. In Sabatauskas's words, the article of the
country's main law clearly defines that "marriage is
made by free will of a man and a woman."
"This makes it
absolutely clear that marriages between persons of the
same sex are against the law," Sabatauskas said. "The Civil
Code also gives a comprehensible definition of
marriage with a person of the opposite sex. The Civil
Code defines marriage as a voluntary agreement between
a man and a woman to create legal family relations between a
woman and a man, as stipulated by law." (Advocate.com)
