AFP/Vilnius
Lithuanian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to overturn a presidential veto of a child-protection law that bans what supporters say is the promotion of homosexuality.
The law, due to come into force in March 2010, bars the “public dissemination” of information favourable to homosexuality, claiming it could harm the mental health and physical, intellectual and moral development of youngsters.
The legislation - which also covers bisexuality, polygamy, images of heterosexual intercourse, death and severe injury, the paranormal, foul language and bad eating habits - does not specifically define public dissemination nor set down the punishment for offenders.
Eighty-six of the Baltic state’s 141 lawmakers voted in favour, while six were against, 25 abstained, and the remainder did not take part.
Gay rights campaigners blasted the move.
“Parliament has demonstrated its will to institutionalise homophobia,” Vladimir Simonko, head of the Lithuanian Gay League, told AFP.
Homosexuality is frowned upon by many in Lithuania, where the vast majority of the population of 3.3mn is Roman Catholic.
Sixty-seven lawmakers had approved the bill on June 16, but Lithuania’s outgoing president Valdas Adamkus refused to sign it.
Under Lithuania’s constitution, supporters of the law needed at least 71 votes to override his veto, a threshold they passed with ease.
Adamkus retired on Sunday after serving out two five-year terms. His successor, Dalia Grybauskaite, cannot re-impose a veto.
There was no immediate comment from her office to suggestions that she or gay rights campaigners were considering further legal action to try and stop the law coming into effect.
Opponents argue the law is not only homophobic but will also impose broad censorship and violate Lithuania’s commitments as a member of the UN and the European Union.
Human rights group Amnesty International had repeatedly urged parliament not to approve it.
Simonko said Lithuanian campaigners were disappointed they had not been given a wider hearing.
“We contacted everyone, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the UN, but nothing worked. I’m sounding the alarm again,” he said.
Lithuania has been faulted in the past on gay rights.
In 2007 and 2008, municipal authorities in the capital Vilnius and Lithuania’s second city Kaunas banned EU-sponsored anti-discrimination events, which did not just focus on homosexuality.
Authorities have also barred local campaigners from holding several public gatherings.
Gay rights campaigners from Lithuania and neighbouring Latvia and Estonia are nonetheless planning to hold a high-profile “Baltic Pride” march in Vilnius next May.
This May, the annual event was held in Latvia and passed off peacefully after heavy policing kept apart marchers and anti-gay demonstrators who had attacked previous rallies.
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