London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Book showing same-sex marriage suitable for children, European court rules

Book showing same-sex marriage suitable for children, European court rules

Restricting children’s access to fiction showcasing same-sex relationships is ‘illegitimate,’ the European Court of Human Rights says.
Labeling a fiction book with references to same-sex marriage as harmful to children violates freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights stated Monday in a landmark ruling.

“Restricting children’s access to such information had not pursued any aims that it could accept as legitimate,” the court’s ruling reads.

The case pitted the Lithuanian government against the author of a collection of fairytales whose storyline revolved, in some cases, around same-sex marriage. (For instance, a passage in one of the books described a princess and a shoemaker’s daughter sleeping in each other’s arms after their wedding.)

The distribution of that book, “Gintarinė širdis,” or “Amber Heart,” was suspended shortly after publication, in March 2014. When it resumed a year later, the books were distributed with a label warning their content could be harmful to children under 14.

The author, Neringa Macatė, filed a civil suit against the book’s publisher in Lithuania, arguing that references to same-sex relationships could not be considered as being harmful to children. After her claim was denied by Lithuanian courts at all levels, she filed a request in front of the ECHR in November 2019. She died in 2020.

In its ruling, the court found that “the measures against the applicant’s book had intended to limit children’s access to information depicting same-sex relationships as essentially equivalent different-sex relationships.”

This, the court found, violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to the freedom of expression.

The court was not convinced by the Lithuanian government’s argument that the book had “promoted same-sex families over others.”

“To the contrary, the fairy tales had advocated respect for and acceptance of all members of society in a fundamental aspect of their lives, namely a committed relationship,” the court’s decision reads.

It is the first case where the ECHR was called on to rule on restricting access to children’s literature showing references to same-sex relationships.

The ruling was celebrated by LGBTQ+ rights organizations.

“Protection of children or public morals are too often used as a convenient pretext to restrict freedom of expression, and demonise and discriminate against members of the LGBTQI+ community,” said Barbora Bukovská, senior director for law and policy at the human rights NGO Article 19.

“With today’s verdict, the European Court has rejected this kind of scaremongering tactic and made clear that it cannot be tolerated.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
×