Thousands of protesters turned out to demonstrate against a proposed same-sex civil partnerships bill that members of Lithuania's Parliament are anticipated to debate next month.
The May 15 event, dubbed the "family defense march," brought out an estimated 10,000 people to the streets of Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, local police reported.
Demonstrators risked arrest and fines for going against a ban on public gatherings in response to a surge of COVID infections in order to express their belief that same-sex unions are a threat to traditional family values in the Roman Catholic-majority country.
The bill, proposed by Tomas Vytautas Raskevicius, a gay Member of Parliament, is based on the country's Constitutional Court affirming that the