LRT traces how Lithuanian media built a myth of a gay elite

LRT has examined how Lithuanian media portrayed sexual minorities from 1994 to 2004, including the creation of a supposed “gay elite” conspiracy. The subject was discussed on LRT Radio’s programme Buvo nebėra, which reviewed material from the broadcaster’s archives with researcher Rasa Navickaitė.

Homosexual relationships were decriminalised in Lithuania in July 1993, making it the last Baltic state to do so. The Lithuanian Gay League, the country’s first organisation for homosexual people, was established in 1995. Navickaitė said the media treated the community as a new phenomenon in independent Lithuania.

During the Soviet period, sexual minorities were largely absent from public discussion, and homosexual relationships were criminalised. Navickaitė said homophobia was embedded in institutions, and that the KGB and police used it for blackmail and humiliation. Parts of the medical system were also involved in persecution, she said.

In the 1990s, media coverage was generally cautious, although some reports placed homosexual people alongside religious sects and other groups as unfamiliar features of the newly independent country. Coverage became more hostile around 2000, when the newspaper Vakaro žinios began publishing names of public figures it alleged were connected to the LGBT community.

Articles referred to a “blue mafia” and ran a series titled “They are called gays,” presenting people as homosexual. Navickaitė said the publication group became an active homophobic force and caused considerable harm.

She linked the coverage to Lithuania’s preparations to join the European Union. As the EU required legal changes and supported human rights and LGBT organisations, some media reports claimed that gay people were sabotaging Lithuania’s accession. LRT’s archive caption identifies a 2000 issue of Vakaro žinios being considered at a meeting of the Journalists’ Ethics Commission.