Court orders Kaunas municipality to approve route for LGBTQ+ march

Lithuania's Supreme Administrative Court on Friday dismissed Kaunas Municipality's appeal and gave it until 6 p.m. to authorize Saturday's LGBTQ+ march to take place along the route requested by the organizers.

"Kaunas City Municipality Administration's appeal has been rejected," Neringa Lukoseviciene, the court's spokeswoman, told BNS.

The ruling is final and not subject to appeal.

The organizers of the Kaunas Pride march expect around 1,000 people to take part in the LGBTQ+ event in Lithuania's second-largest city on Saturday.

The march is planned to start at St. Michael the Archangel Church, better known as Soboras. From there, participants will walk through the city's central Laisves Avenue and then back.

In June, the local authority refused to issue a permit for the Kaunas Pride march through the city's main street, citing ongoing infrastructure renovation work and |disproportionate inconvenience" to the city's residents as the reason.

The organizers appealed the decision to the Regional Administrative Court which in early August ordered the local authority to authorize the LGBTQ+ march along the route requested by the organizers.

On August 26, the city appealed the ruling to the supreme court.