Rights Group Objects to Antigay Lithuanian Law

Human Rights Watch has called on Lithuanian lawmakers to remove antigay language as they revise proposed legislation restricting information available to children.

"Depriving young people of information they need to decide about their lives and protect their health is a regressive move," Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of LGBT Rights program for HRW, said in a press release. "Instead of protecting children, Lithuania is condemning them to ignorance, danger, and fear."

HRW sent a letter Monday to Valentinas Stundys, chairman of the standing committee on education, science, and culture of the Seimas, Lithuania's parliament. The committee is reviewing the Law on the Protection of Minors Against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information, passed last summer by the Seimas, in an override of President Valdas Adamkus's veto. Among information the law listed as "detrimental" was anything that "agitates for homosexual, bisexual, and polygamous relations."

Amnesty International and the European Union criticized the bill, prompting the current president, Dalia Grybauskaite, who took office in July, to establish a presidential committee to review the law. The committee proposed amendments deleting discriminatory language, but during the discussions one Seimas member introduced a new amendment prohibiting information that encourages "homosexual and bisexual relations." A majority of Seimas members approved this amendment, and now the standing committee on education, science, and culture must propose a final text of the law to the parliament.