Some of today’s noteworthy news:

• “The Lithuanian Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of moving forward to a final vote on an amendment to the ‘Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information’,” Pink News writes. The proposed amendment would make it illegal to discuss homosexuality in schools, and it would ban any reference to same-sex attraction in public information that can be viewed by children. Gay-rights group Tolerant Youth Association says that the amendment would ban any non-negative information on homosexuality. “It would be possible not only to ban websites and films positively presenting homosexual relations, but also discos, exhibitions, demonstrations and other public events related to homosexuality if these could be accessed by minors,” a spokesperson says in a statement. I guess old habits die hard. It’s difficult to tell the new hardline Catholicism from old-school Soviet oppression.
• After some turbulence, a same-sex marriage bill was signed into law in New Hampshire yesterday. Congratulations!
• The Masorti congregation in Stockholm has been searching for a new rabbi since Rabbi Dov Vogel left for Israel in 2006. Now it may have found one in progressive rabbi Stas Wojciechowicz. On it website, the Jewish Centre says it is working closely with the European Masorti Bet Din in London, which makes me wonder what this religious court think about a Masorti congregation hiring a Progressive rabbi. In America, interdenominational service has been the cause of many disputes within the Jewish community. I remember one big row over a Conservative Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen who worked alongside a Reconstructionist Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum at the Beth Simchat Torah in New York. Cohen almost lost her rights within the Conservative/Masorti movement.

Today’s picture is of the Baltic Sea, seen from Österlen at the southernmost tip of Sweden.

Update: I nearly forgot to link to this brilliant article about Portugal’s successful decriminalization of drugs. It’s in Swedish and written by Daniel Berg, Carl-Michael Edenborg, and Ted Goldberg.