VILNIUS — The suspension of the permit for the gay parade in Vilnius has prompted attempts by supporters of the march to get it re-established by the weekend.

The permit for the parade scheduled for Saturday was suspended after the Prosecutor General Raimondas Petrauskas and member of the Kaunas city council Stanislovas Buškevičius informed the court that the police are not capable of controlling the situation if it got out of hand. They said that the safety of the participants and others in the streets of Vilnius could not be guaranteed.

Immediately after the decision from the court at midday on Wednesday came out, the organizers of the rally appealed the decision, sending it to the Supreme Administrative Court to be heard. The case has already been opened, a court worker told Baltic Reports, and the first hearing will be held at 11 a.m. Even if the permit is not re-established by Saturday, the march may be able to receive a permit for a later date.

Politicians in Brussels parliament also moved quickly and sent a letter urging lawmakers to push the parade through.

Soon after the decision President Dalia Grybauskaitė said she was astounded by the court’s decision. Leonidas Donskis, one of Lithuania’s representatives in the European Parliament, said in a statement that the Lithuanian government and president should work to allow the parade.

“With this [court] decision, Lithuania distances itself from Europe to resemble Russia, where gay prides are banned by authorities and minority rights are trampled: it is a nightmare becoming truth. Democracy, rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms is what we fought for and then further strengthened by entering the EU. The president and the government must act to make sure the pride [parade] can take place, as in any other democratic country,” Donskis said.

Organizers of the Baltic Pride events told Baltic Reports that they are still expecting the parade to take place.

“We hope that the permit for the march will be restored by Saturday and we will do everything in our power to make it happen,” Artūras Rudomanskis, head of the Youth Tolerance League and member of the Baltic Pride organizer’s committee, told Baltic Reports.

Even if the permit to march in the streets is denied, members of the gay community might meet in public anyway along with politicians from across Europe, he said.

“No alternative events are planned by the organizers. However, we cannot ensure that people won’t start assembling, especially since the event was awaited and information about it was spread for a half a year already,” he said.

The court suspended the permit given for the parade by the Vilnius municipality after the prosecutor told the court that he had heard of potential unrest or even riots if the parade were to take place. He sent a letter to the organizers after the court case placating them and saying that he was not against gays, but had a duty to ensure public order.

Before the court case, the police declared that they were able and ready to conduct the gay parade in a safe an orderly manner.

Rudomanskis said that Baltic Pride had full faith in the police service.

“We do not fear any attacks since we believe that police will be able to protect Lithuanian citizens and foreign guests,” he said. “The Lithuanian police were able to secure safety during the visits of the president of the U.S., the queen of England, NATO summit meeting and other events.”

The fact that members of European parliament and other politicians from around Europe will be in attendance for the weekend should ensure an adequate response from police, Rudomanskis said.

“Baltic Pride, and the march ‘For Equality’, will be attended by members of European parliament and members of parliament of foreign countries, the Swedish EU Minister among them, ambassadors and representatives of various international organizations, therefore we believe that police would take all security measures to prevent any disturbances or outbursts of violence against them and other participants of the Baltic Pride events,” he said.

The rest of the Baltic Pride events will go on as scheduled. The first Baltic Pride program was held last year in Riga, where it was met with large anti-gay protests coordinated by the nopride.lv advocacy group. Photos of the 2009 Baltic Pride events by Baltic Reports photojournalist Delmi Álvarez can be viewed here.

Unpopular parade

A survey commissioned by the Baltic News Service showed Thursday that 73.3 percent of Lithuanians do not want the parade to take place.

Among respondents between the ages of 15 and 34, 17.8 percent supported the parade. While that’s a slightly higher margin than the general public, which is only 10.1 percent, it shows that even among youth support for sexual minorities is weak.

Members of society with higher incomes were also slightly supportive of the parade than people who lived on less than 1,100 litai (€319) per month. In the higher income category 16.9 percent of respondents support the parade.

The survey was carried out by the RAIT company, which asked 1,045 people aged between 15 and 74 for their opinion on the parade.

Former research done by the European Commission showed that Lithuanian people are less aware of gay people in their community than any other nation in the EU. Just 7 percent of Lithuanians are aware of gay people in the community, far less than the EU average of 38 percent.

Experts say that the fear of social exclusion forces gays to stay in the closet or emigrate to more accepting countries.

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