Lithuania president vetoes law banning gay propaganda in schools

The President of Lithuania, Valdas Adamkus, has vetoed a law that would have prevented homosexual propaganda from entering into schools or other public places that could be seen by young people, reports Alex Bush, LifeSiteNews.com.

The veto came after the Siemas, the Lithuanian parliamentary body, voted 67-3 in favor of the legislation, with four abstentions.

The law would have prohibited the dissemination of public information that is recognized in general to have a negative effect on the mental, physical, intellectual, and moral development of youth. This includes the spreading of information that "agitates for homosexual, bisexual relations, or polygamy."

The measure also bans "the portrayal of physical or psychological violence, displaying a dead or mutilated body, [and] information that arouses fear or horror or that encourages self abuse or suicide."

However the law may yet still be passed, said Vytautas Valentinavicius, chairman of Tolerant Youth Association, to UKGayNews. "All it needs is 71 deputies to vote in favor of going ahead with the law, and it goes back to the president who must sign it in three days," he said.

President Adamkus, who only has two weeks left in office, said before vetoing the law that he did "not know whether negative opinion of the international organizations on this law will have any influence upon my decision."

Adamkus may be attempting to push the decision off to president-elect Dalia Grybauskait, who won a landslide victory in the last election and is set to take office on July 12.

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TAGS: Lithuania Valdas Adamkus homosexual propaganda Dalia Grybauskait

[06/30/2009]

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