Lithuanian equal opportunities watchdogs comment on gay fairy tales book

Ombudswoman Edita Žiobienė noted a “lack of in-depth analysis and argumentation, more precise explanation, clearer assessment criteria and a connection between cause and consequence”.

“There must be a deeper explanation of why the fairy tales can be harmful,” reads a press release circulated by the Office of the Ombudsperson for Equal Opportunities.

In May, the Journalist Ethics Inspectorate announced that fairy tales telling about love between a princess and a shoemaker’s daughter or the prince and a male tailor have a negative effect on kids under 14.

The conclusions concerned a collection of fairy tales by Neringa Dangvydė which included a story about romantic relations between same-sex characters. After an outrage, the book was pulled from bookshops by the publisher.

Meanwhile, Žiobienė says that “the society is full of diversity,” therefore, the above-mentioned wording “can be found insulting, unclear and unacceptable to some parts of the society”.

Žiobienė also noted that the provision of the Law on the Protection of Minors against Negative Effects of Public Information, which puts restrictions on any information “denigrating family values and promoting a concept of marriage and family that is different from that stipulated in the Constitution and the Civil Code”, could run counter to the Law on Equal Opportunities.

After submitting the critical remarks, Žiobienė still announced termination of the analysis and suggested that parliament should amend legislation that regulates the work of the service of the journalists’ ethics inspector and improve the Law on Equal Opportunities.