{"id":11286,"date":"2017-10-30T11:24:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T09:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feministeerium.ee\/?p=11286"},"modified":"2017-12-05T14:23:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T12:23:52","slug":"cant-put-people-just-one-category","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.feministeerium.ee\/en\/cant-put-people-just-one-category\/","title":{"rendered":"We can\u2019t put people in just one category"},"content":{"rendered":"

Similarly to Estonia, the constitution of Romania defines family as a gender-neutral institution based on the marriage of spouses. This definition has incited the organisation Coalition for Family (Coali\u021bia pentru Familie). In 2015 and 2016, they collected nearly 2,6 million signatures in support of the initiative to change the wording of the constitution: \u201cThe family is based on the marriage between a man and a woman.\u201d The referendum on changing the constitution may already take place this November, and considering the overall social attitudes, the outlook is not good for the LGBT community.<\/span><\/p>\n

I met with Vlad-Levente Viski, the president of the local LGBTQIA organization MozaiQ, who told me about the situation for the community in Romania, and about how the pre-referendum moment can be an opportunity to change society for the better.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the position of the Romanian state regarding LGBT issues?<\/h3>\n

First of all, Romania was one of the last three countries in Europe to decriminalize homosexuality. It happened in 2001. Before that homosexuality and the so-called homosexual propaganda were punished by the penal code and LGBT people were actually sent to prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2000, the anti-discrimination legislation was passed, and in 2001 the decriminalization of homosexuality. These were the two steps forward for Romania and the LGBT community. However, in the following 16 years, there has been no other legislation passed in favour of LGBT people. And the 2001 legislation has not been updated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The civil union bill has been introduced three times: in 2013, 2015 and 2016. The first two were rejected and the third is now in parliament. So the state hasn\u2019t really been doing anything for the LGBT community.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Foto: Virginia Lupu<\/p><\/div>\n

How would you describe the general LGBT situation in Romania?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s very bad, there are many problems. There still are cases of people being fired for being gay. There is legislation against discrimination, but it\u2019s hard to implement in these cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, we don\u2019t have a mapping of the situation outside of Bucharest; there are probably many gay people marrying into straight marriages. It is a widespread issue that parents abuse their LGBT children and we don\u2019t have shelters for these people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the issue of HIV and the lack of information about it. The last survey in 2005 showed that 5 percent of LGBT people live with HIV. The medication is available but LGBT people are often treated poorly in the hospital. I know many cases of gay people being shamed by the doctor, their confidentiality not being respected.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are also issues in the trans community – the majority of trans people can\u2019t find jobs, can\u2019t change their documents. The whole process of changing your legal gender (?) is extremely humiliating. In the last 15 years there have been six or seven cases of people managing to change their documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there are psychological issues, which are not treated. We simply do not have services for it. In a country of 20 million, you can\u2019t provide services when we have two psychologists in Bucharest available for the community\u2026 (If taking into account that the ratio of LGBT people amongst the population is 4% then it can be presumed that the number in Bucharest is about 96 124. <\/span>edit.)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It all goes back to decriminalizing homosexuality so late. In Hungary, Czechia, Bulgaria, even in the 80s you had gay bars, apartment parties, some gay people dared to go out dressed more flamboyantly. This enabled the build-up of the gay identity, the queer identity. And in Romania gays were being arrested until 2001. There was no time to build an identity. Now it\u2019s slowly being built.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gay pride has been taking place in Bucharest since 2005. In 2006-2007 there was violence at the pride; after that, pride has been happening with no violence, but with very few participants. In the last two years, the prides have been very successful with over 2500 participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bucharest Pride 2017. Photo: Felix \/ Flickr CC<\/p><\/div>\n

Tell me more about the upcoming referendum.<\/h3>\n

The aim of the referendum is to forbid the marriage of same-sex couples, to change the constitution in order to enable marriage only between a man and a woman. The thing is that right now the civil code already forbids same sex marriage and gay civil union.<\/span><\/p>\n

The referendum was initiated by Coalition for Family, which connects 40-50 organizations. They are promoting the hateful discourse; for example, they favour conversion therapy. They say that gender identity and sexual orientation is a made up thing. They warn against paedophilia, they warn against bigamy, they claim the end of the world is coming and our traditional way of life is in danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015-2016 they were able to collect 2,6 million signatures in favour of changing the constitution. This is a very large number of signatures and in connection with the upcoming elections, all the parties started competing for these 2,6 million votes. Right now the left-wing political party, which runs the government, has claimed the referendum as their own and they are pushing for it extremely loudly. Which is crazy as we are talking about a left wing, so-called socialist government, which is pushing for an initiative to exclude certain citizens, a minority, from the public arena. This is what we\u2019re dealing with.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the position of the Romanian Orthodox Church in this debate?<\/h3>\n

In 2003, the church had 90% trust among the public, now they are at about 50% or under. The referendum campaign was an attempt to legitimize them. At every step of the way the church has opposed gay rights and they have put this in the core centre of their doctrine. It\u2019s very difficult to find LGBT people in Romania who believe in god, as they find themselves always in opposition to the church.