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The European Court of Human Rights fined Lithuania for restricting a children's book about same-sex relationships

The European Court of Human Rights has granted the claim of the writer Neringa Dangvide against the Lithuanian government, which designated a children's book describing same-sex marriage as one that is harmful to minors.
This is stated in the court decision published on Monday.

In 2013, Dangvide published a book called "Amber Heart" - a collection of fairy tales for children 9-10 years old, whose characters are representatives of different ethnic groups or with intellectual disabilities.

Two of the six stories had storylines about relationships and marriage between people of the same sex - in particular, it described how the princess and the shoemaker's daughter sleep in each other's arms after the wedding.
Shortly after the publication of the book, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture received a complaint that the Dangvide collection "encourages perversions." The Inspection of journalistic Ethics of the country on the appeal of the Ministry of Culture found that the book violates the law on the protection of minors.

At first, the "Amber Heart" stopped being distributed, later the sale was resumed with a note that the book could be harmful to children under 14 years old. The author disagreed with the Inspection's decision and filed a lawsuit, but in 2019 her claim was finally dismissed, claiming that the description of same-sex couples in the book was "openly sexual".

The ECHR accepted Neringa Dangvide's claim for consideration in November 2019. The court ruled that the actions of the Lithuanian authorities interfered with freedom of expression, complicated the sale of the book and reduced its readership.
At the same time, the ECHR rejected the allegation of excessive sexualization of the text of fairy tales, having not seen "propaganda of the same-sex family", as the Lithuanian government claimed.
 

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