Gay rights questioned by Luxembourg MP

VILNIUS- The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers said that Vilnius should not ban public gay demonstrations based solely on hostile public opinion, reported the Lietuvos Rytas daily.

This was the first time over the past 15 years when the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly expresses concern over the situation in Lithuania and sends an inquiry to the Committee of Ministers.

Luxembourg's MP Jean Huss noted that upon accession to the Council of Europe in 1993 Lithuania committed itself to respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms. In his opinion, the actions of theVilniusmunicipality constituted a severe violation of rights of sexual minorities.
The MP indicated three actions: the ban to put slogans regarding tolerance towards sexual minorities on a trolleybus, the ban for the European Union's anti-discrimination truck to come toVilniusand the ban to hoist a rainbow-colored flag in the Town Hall Square in the Lithuanian capital.

After receiving strongly worded documents from Strasbourg, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry forwarded them to the mayor of Vilnius, Juozas Imbrasas.  

"Changing something is not up to us, I have no idea what else we can do to make them change their minds," said Darius Staniulis, director of the Foreign Ministry's Human Rights Division.

Speaking at the Wednesday's meeting, Lithuanian envoy to the Council of Europe, Ambassador Neris Germanas, assured that the inquiry of the Luxembourgish MP would be taken into consideration.

Germanas stressed that up until now Lithuania was considered by the Council of Europe to be a country respectful to human rights.
The chairman of the Lithuanian Gay League, Vladimiras Simonko, sees the Strasbourg meeting as a significant signal for the Lithuanian government's obligations to work in the field of human rights. In his opinion, the letter of the Luxembourgish MP was the result of lobbyist actions of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).