"You chose a good start for the Lithuanian presidency leading the European Union," she told a press conference on Friday, adding that she will take part in Saturday's parade as it is "a very historical moment for me."
"No government has a right to tell its citizens whom to love, no religion has a right to tell which identity to choose and no politician," Ohlsson said.
Helle Jacobsen, a representative of Amnesty International, says they plan to present a petition to Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas, signed by 30,000 activists and demanding that Vilnius authorities allow the LGBT pride march on Saturday. The municipality has already issued permission but did that after several court orders.
"Thirty thousand activists from across Europe have signed Amnesty's petition to demand that the Baltic Pride take place on Saturday. We regret to see that Vilnius City authorities, that they have banned the pride and then has several court decisions for this pride to be allowed. We are going to hand over our thirty thousand signatures to the mayor of Vilnius," she said.
Vilnius is hosting an international conference on Friday to discuss the situation of the rights of LGBT people in the Baltic states and the whole of Europe.
Also attending the conference, Norwegian Ambassador to Lithuania Leif Arne Ulland said he admired the organizers who had to deal with Vilnius authorities' efforts to ban the march in central Vilnius street.
"I admired the the calm and persistent way the organisers of the march had dealt with the efforts to prevent visibility of the march itself", he said.
The conference at the Tolerance Center is organized in the framework of the "Baltic Pride" 2013 events.
