Parliament Overrides the Presidential Veto
17 07 2009

Overriding a veto by former president Valdas Adamkus, who left office last week, Lithuanian parliament members approved a bill on Tuesday, July 14 to keep information about homosexuality away from children.

According to the Associated Press, the so-called “Law on the Protection of Minors” bans information considered harmful to the “intellectual or moral development” of minors, including material that “agitates for homosexual, bisexual, and polygamous relations.” Public information is broadly defined under the law as television, film, video games, and print and online advertising.

Lithuanian Seimas members voted 87-6 to override the presidential veto. Forty-eight of the 141 lawmakers either abstained or were absent for the vote.

New president Dalia Grybauskaite is required to sign the bill into law within three days.

Human rights and LGBT rights advocates condemned the law as a rude violation of free speech and international standards. They may challenge the law in court.

One of the bill’s initiators, Petras Grazulis of the right-wing populist Order and Justice Party, seeks a total ban of homosexuality in Lithuania, the Associated Press informs.