Lithuanian Family Movement

Lietuvos šeimų sąjūdis
Abbreviation	LŠS
Formation	June 27, 2021 (2021-06-27)
Founded at	Kaunas
Type	Nonprofit
Purpose	Limiting marriage to people of the opposite sex. Opposition to same-sex civil unions, adoption, the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, and "gender ideology".
Location	Lithuania
Region served	Europe
Methods	Protests, demonstrations, reports, policy proposals
Council	Raimondas Grinevičius Algimantas Rusteika Adelina Sabaliauskaitė Vitolda Račkova Arvydas Daunys Artūras Orlauskas Gitana Balčiūnienė Kristina Stumbrienė Antanas Norvydas Daiva Narkevičiūtė Laura Lodienė Andrius Galkinas Jonas Gedvilas Tomas Senūta Egidijus Visockas
Website	seimusajudis.lt (in Lithuanian)

Lithuanian Family Movement (Lithuanian: Lietuvos šeimų sąjūdis, LŠS; Lithuanian pronunciation: [ɛɫˈɛʃˈɛs]) is a right-wing traditionalist anti-gender political movement in Lithuania. The primary focus of the movement is voicing out their opposition for bills it mostly considers to be a threat to the traditional nuclear family, the well-being of children, and society at large, such as the legalization of same-sex civil unions,^[1] same-sex marriages, decriminalisation of drugs, ratification of Istanbul Convention or vaccine passports.^[2] The Lithuanian Family Movement was founded on June 27, 2021,^[3] as a response to the Homeland Union, a liberal conservative party that received the majority of votes in the 2020 parliamentary election and formed a coalition with the liberal Freedom Party, began promoting LGBT-friendly policies. Some people involved in the movement resorted to violence during civil protests.^[4] However, the protest's key denied such allegiations, claiming they were staged provocations.

During a protest organized by the Lithuanian Family Movement, there was some booing of the Lithuanian politicians Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen and Ingrida Šimonytė as well as a former anti-Soviet dissident Sr. Bernadeta Mališkaitė at an honorary public event to commemorate January 13 in 2022.^[5][6] Soon thereafter, the movement stated in an open letter that "We regret the individual disrespectful outbursts" during Mališkaitė's speech and that "the negative reaction was not aimed at the defenders of freedom or the events of January 13th, but at politicians".^[5]

Movement structure and ideology

The Lithuanian Family Movement is a unified sociopolitical entity with Raimondas Grinevičius^[7] alongside the Council of other nine members serving as its primary leadership.^[2] The movement organises a march, known as the Great Family Defense March (Lithuanian: Didysis šeimų gynimo maršas), annually. According to one of the founders Arturas Orlauskas, the purpose of such nationwide gatherings is “to protect the Lithuanian state from anticonstitutional actions, which violate the basic rights and freedoms of the society.”^[8] They are also organized to “defend our country’s children, the youth, families, and schools from the harmful influence of sexual minorities…”^[8]

References