Letter from Amnesty International's LGBT Network

Dear Supporter,

The Lithuanian Parliament seems to believe that information about homosexuality is as "detrimental" to young people as instructions on how to make explosives.

Since we last wrote to you in June, we've had some bad news from Lithuania.  Despite a Presidential veto and widespread international criticism, the Lithuanian Parliament has adopted a “Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information”.

The list of information deemed harmful to the mental health and "intellectual or moral development" of minors includes: instructions on how to make explosives; graphic depictions of violence or death; and material that "agitates for homosexual, bisexual, and polygamous relations". This legislation would criminalise or otherwise prohibit the public potrayal of homosexuality or any information relating to it.

Thank you to everyone who took action on this case before. Please act again today. If nobody stands up against this homophobic law, it will enter into force on 1 March 2010.

Please write to the Lithuanian authoritities to remove all discriminatory references to homosexuality from the "Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information".

Thank you for your continuing support.

The LGBT Network