Oberstes Gericht Litauens erklärt Anti-LGBT-Zensurgesetz für verfassungswidrig

Court W

God that’s a horrible headline. I didn’t know whether this was saying they declared LGBTQ censorship is unconstitutional, or if pro-LGBTQ media is.

Tbf, now that I look at it, I might be stupid

**The Lithuanian law provision that prohibits informing minors about same-sex relationships is unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday.**

The former government [asked](https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2195979/lithuanian-government-to-turn-to-constitutional-court-to-invalidate-anti-lgbtq-law) the top court to assess the constitutionality of the Law on the Protection of Minors from Negative Effects of Public Information.

The law states 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 court ruled that this provision of the law is contrary to Article 25 of the constitution, which guarantees the right to hold and freely express one’s own convictions and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas.

According to the Constitutional Court, this provision of the law is also contrary to Article 38 of the constitution, which states that the family is the foundation of society and the state and that the state protects and cherishes the family, motherhood, fatherhood, and childhood.

The court stressed that restrictions on the dissemination of information to minors must not be such as to undermine or disregard other values enshrined in the constitution.

“Therefore, no legal regulation may be introduced which implies that information on any family models and relationships between individuals is in itself inappropriate for minors,” said Constitutional Court President Gintaras Goda when announcing the decision.

“Such a legal regulation […] 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,” he added.

According to the court, the freedom to seek and receive information, guaranteed by the constitution, 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.

Last year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Lithuania had violated the rights of writer Neringa Macatė by restricting the publication of her children’s book Amber Heart, which depicts same-sex relationships.

Following the ECHR ruling, the government proposed to the Seimas to remove this provision from the law, but the parliament rejected the initiative last autumn.