In Lithuania, the Constitutional Court ruled that the law that prohibits informing minors about same-sex relationships is unconstitutional.
The Law on the Protection of Minors from Negative Effects of Public Information posited an antiquated belief that minors are adversely affected by information that “denigrates family values and promotes a different concept of marriage and family formation from that enshrined in the Constitution and the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania”.
The government asked the top court to assess the constitutionality of this law, which led to the release of this ruling.
For the court, this provision of the law is contrary to Article 25 of the Lithuanian constitution that guarantees the right to hold and freely express one’s own convictions and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas.
Also – even if Article 38 of the constitution states that the family is the foundation of society, and the state is tasked to protect and cherish the family, motherhood, fatherhood, and childhood – attempting to restrict the dissemination of information undermines or disregards other values enshrined in the constitution.
In the decision that was announced by Constitutional Court President Gintaras Goda, it was stressed that the freedom to seek and receive information includes the obligation to give minors access to information that is objective and reflects real social relations and that contributes to the formation of a worldview based on respect for the rights and dignity of others.
As such, “no legal regulation may be introduced which implies that information on any family models and relationships between individuals is in itself inappropriate for minors” since a legal regulation like this “hinders their development as mature, full-fledged personalities and is incompatible with the constitutional duty of the state to ensure the harmonious and comprehensive development of the child, based on respect for human rights and dignity, as well as the values of equality, pluralism, and tolerance, inherent in a democratic society.”
This political zealotry to limit information on LGBTQIA people was actually already considered illegal earlier, when the country restricted the publication of a children’s book, Amber Heart, by Neringa Macatė who wrote about same-sex relationships. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Lithuania violated Macatė’s rights.
