Nov 12, 2007Quickie Link: Amnesty Points to Rising Anti-Gay Emotion in Lithuania
By vanrozenheim
(Lithuania) - Amnesty International today called on its 2.2 million members worldwide to address the rising tide of homophobia in Lithuania. In recent months the Gay community in the Baltic state has seen marches repeatedly banned for spurious reasons, a smoke-bomb attack on a Gay-rights conference, and numerous homophobic comments from leading politicians. Earlier this year in May, Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas banned a one-day visit of the official European Union “Stop Discrimination” truck on its tour of 19 member-states as part of the ‘For Diversity: Against Discrimination’ information campaign. Just days before the ban on the EU truck, the Mayor of Vilnius supported a refusal to display advertisements on Vilnius’ trolleybuses promoting sexual orientation equality in employment developed for an EU-funded project.
