Fun Fast Facts:
- Homosexuality decriminalised in 1996.
- Anti-discrimination laws in employment since 2000.
- 2006, hate speech law in place.
- Does not perform same-sex ceremonies, but recognise others.
- Legal right to change gender.
- U.S. ambassador was gay in 2000, when many of the laws changed.
- 2007, Romania’s National Council for Combatting Discrimination ruled that banning MSM from blood donation is illegal.
LGBT-friendly organisation: ACT-Romania
- In 2009, an initiative group, RGN, was established to bring information about national and worldwide LGBT movement.
- The group’s first action was to launch the website, www.StiriGay.ro on Feb 01, 2010.
- ACT-Q ROMANIA established on May 30, 2011.
- Acts in support and for the rights of the LGBT community on two major directives: culture and communication.
W3JOY interviewed: Logan Mucha, director of East Bloc Love and Jack Giles, production assistant
It seemed like there was a visible presence.It has many laws that were very progressive…for example, gays have been able to openly serve in the military for a long time.All these changes happened in 2000 or so, that’s when they were making the bid for the E.U.A lot of people get exploited for things like that and have to turn to prostitution.A lot of the organisations are very male-centric….if you’re gay, if you’re lesbian, you’ve got your own groups.The media do actually cover the gay-related events, not always from the most positive angle. When they have Pride events, they’ll not go for the shots of the two normal-looking guys holding hands. It’ll be the drag queens, it’ll be the topless boys, the most outrageous people….they’ll always try to go for that angle that it’s that disgusting thing.There’s really not a lot of news dissemination in terms of positive images.
W3JOY interviewed: Daniel, from ACT-Q
There are not many protections for LGBT Romanians. We have anti-discrimination laws. In television, or even in reality, gay things are still taboo in Romania. Maybe it’s because of the communism era, maybe religious mentalities, people are still afraid of LGBT people. I’m sure that we have some LGBT people a politicians, but no one is openly gay or lesbian. They are afraid of coming out because they are afraid that people will not vote for them. It’s hard to talk about LGBT history in Romania because in Romania, gay people were convicted by law until 2001. So until then, LGBT people and everything was underground…most of the LGBT people are still afraid to be out in public.
On being LGBT during the Chauchescu Era:
It was very hard, because certainly the law was against it. You could do prison time…they were blackmailing them to become an informer to escape prison. Mainly LGBT people during the Chauchescu Era acted as straight people.
Published on: Aug 21, 2012 @ 9:32
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:20 — 32.3MB)