LITHUANIA: Hundreds Of Anti-Gay Protesters Disrupt Baltic Pride Parade
Twenty-eight anti-gay protesters were arrested today at Lithuania's second-ever Baltic Pride parade in Vilnius, where attendees were pelted with eggs and verbal abuse.
Several hundred gay rights activists took to the grand main street of Vilnius to show their pride, waving Lithuanian and rainbow-colored flags, with some standing on top of buses decked out in colorful balloons. They were met by hundreds of unruly protesters, 28 of whom were detained, police said. Among them was Petras Grazulis, an anti-gay lawmaker who rallied protesters with a bullhorn. He was thrown face-down on the ground and carried off in handcuffs by police, though the lawmaker soon reappeared at the protest after being released from police custody. About 50 protesters tried to storm a concert stage where activists were to speak, but police forced them off. Protesters also threw eggs, hitting Lithuanian lawmaker Giedre Purvaneckiene and Sweden's European Union Affairs Minister Birgitta Ohlsson, who were standing at the front of the parade along with other dignitaries. "It shows that we need to march until eggs aren't thrown anymore and people can march freely and without fear," said Purvaneckiene, who was not injured.
VIDEO: The second clip below shows the arrest of Grazulis, whom you will notice had donned a plastic jacket and booties, presumably to protect his clothes from the eggs that his side was hurling.
LITHUANIA: Fascists And Fire Bomb Disrupt Gay Pride But Parade Goes On
The headquarters of the organizers of Baltic Pride in Vilnius suffered a firebomb attempt last night, but Lithuania's first tiny gay parade went on under the protection of hundreds of soldiers and city police.
Opponents of Lithuania's first gay pride parade threw smoke bombs and tried to break through a barrier Saturday but were stopped by police firing tear gas. Later, protesters threw rocks and street signs at security forces, and two Lithuanian lawmakers were detained after trying to climb the barrier. About 400 people took part in the two-hour march — dubbed "For Equality" — in a sealed-off area in downtown Vilnius. Holding large rainbow flags and dancing to music blaring from loudspeakers, they walked along a road near the city's Neris river.
Participants included many foreigners, diplomats and members of the European Parliament. "We are here because we believe ... in a just society. Labels are for filing, for clothing, not for people. And we are here today to remove labels from people," said Birgitta Ohlsson, Sweden's minister for European Union affairs. Some 800 police, some on horses, were mobilized to provide security and keep at bay more than 1,000 demonstrators. Protesters carried crosses and signs and shouted insults at rally participants. A Catholic Mass at the nearby national cathedral was held to pray for homosexuals. "Sweden has already wiped out traditional families. Now they came over here to tell us how to live, how to think and who to sleep with. Lithuania will not allow such perversions," said Jonas Kempinskas, who walked from the Cathedral to the protest holding a huge cross.
Fascist groups lined the parade route with megaphones to hurl insults at the marchers. From the below clip's description:
When standing among the public watching the Parade my blood runs cold, listening to the conversations. My Lithuanian might still be limited, but the conversations are pretty clear. The most prevailing words are provocation and pederasts, and the presence of a fascist gang evokes emotions ranging from laughter to outright support. The group is not large, agreed, but they can roam about freely and are in no way hindered in expressing their views: Away with pederasts, away with Jews, away with occupants, with here and there a creative variety like Euro-pederasts. A banner shows the Prime Minister taking the mayor of Vilnius from behind undoubtedly he belongs to the category of Euro-pederasts. Fascists demonstrating freely in a city where the whole Jewish community of 80,000 inhabitants was murdered: it evokes some very special feelings. This is the European Union, this is an ancient cosmopolitan city with a rich and also painful pasts. But it is a city that clearly has not fully accepted European morals and values.
Next month when you complain about the commercialization of gay Pride and all those floats sponsored by banks, stop for a minute and consider what our brothers and sisters in Vilnuis endured today just to walk down their own streets as a proud openly gay people.
A court in Lithuania has blocked the parade permit for this weekend's gay pride event in Vilnius.
Vilnius County Administrative Court annulled a license permitting the Balti Pride parade issued by the Vilnius municipal authorities in response to a submission from acting prosecutor general Raimondas Petrauskas. He claimed that allowing the parade of groups from Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia could lead to public disturbances. "We have reason to believe that the state will not be able to provide proper protection for the participants," the submission said. Tensions in staunchly Catholic Lithuania have been steadily rising ahead of the Baltic Pride parade, which forms part of a five-day festival and conference on the subject of equal rights for sexual minorities. Official opposition to the event has attracted widespread international criticism of Lithuania.
Last month Amnesty International condemned the move to ban the parade. On March 1st a new Lithuanian law went into effect that bans the "spread of homosexual propaganda" to minors.
Lithuania Censors Media References To Homosexuality
Lithuania's parliament has passed a bill censoring information about homosexuality in media accessible by children, including television, movies, and the internet.
Vowing to defend family values in the predominantly Catholic nation, lawmakers overturned a presidential veto on the legislation, which bans publicly disseminating material deemed harmful to the mental health and "intellectual or moral development" of minors. The measure lists 19 examples of "detrimental" information, including material that "agitates for homosexual, bisexual, and polygamous relations," instructions on how to make explosives and graphic depictions of violence or death. It also bars information that gives credence to paranormal phenomena, hypnosis or "promotes bad eating." While critics said the text violated the freedom of speech and international standards of human rights, others said the vague wording would make it difficult to enforce. The text does not define "public information" in detail, though it makes references to TV programs, films, computer games and advertising as well as online and print media accessible by children. "This is absurd. I cannot even imagine how they will implement this law," said Dainius Radzevicius, chairman of the Lithuanian Journalists Union.
The lawmaker that sponsored the censorship bill is also seeking a "total ban" on homosexuality, whatever that means. Lithuania's action today continues a pattern of repression of LGBT people across the Baltic nations.
