Like many young LGBTQ+ people in the Baltic state, a member of the European Union since 2004, he blames the country’s “gay propaganda” law.
While the 2009 legislation has not been enforced in recent years, LGBTQ+ rights campaigners say it legitimises homophobic attitudes, curbs free speech and is hampering their fight for same-sex civil partnerships to be legalised. “I’d really like to see the law (overturned) … Because, thinking about myself as a child, it was extremely hard to live with parents that don’t really accept you, then going to a school that is very intolerant,” said Prokopovicius, 21. “It was pretty rough.