If you saw the steamy calendar shots of the Romanian Orthodox Priests before Christmas last year, you may have thought that Romania was more liberal than other Eastern European countries.
However, the calendar caused controversy at home and abroad, in what remains a conservative country with over 80% of Romanians identifying as Orthodox Christian.
Although the country has an equal age of consent when it comes to sex for heterosexual and homosexual couples, and a wide-range of anti-discrimination laws, civil unions between gay (and straight) couples were unanimously blocked last week by the Juridicial Commission of the country’s Chamber of Deputies.
The bill had previously been blocked by the senate, with only 2 senators backing it, reports Stiri pentru viata.
The main reasons for the opposition was a fear of the “redefining of marriage” and an unwillingness to be forced to adopt “alien values.”
Yeah, we’ve all heard that one before.
The most passionate speech against the proposed bill came from MP Diana Tusha (right), of the interestingly-named, Christian Democratic National Peasants’ Party:
“I think we had enough of the harmful 50-year experience of communism, when laws were forcefully imposed on us… There is no need to traumatize further generations in the name of some illusory progress made through alien recipes.
Such a recipe is cultural Marxism… It promotes the destruction of family, of myths and symbols and finally it deconstructs human conduct by completely removing the pillars which support it.”
Nobody’s forcing you to do anything Diana. But you’d think maybe that the ‘harmful 50-year experience of communism’ might make people more open to equality.
Florian
Far from being more liberal than other Eastern European countries, Romania is probably one of the most homophobic in the region. And though there might be a lot of anti-discrimination laws, most if not all of them were passed only because the European Union made them mandatory for Romania’s integration in E.U. But the Romanian society is deeply homophobic and only tolerates gays as long as they are not really visible. Just think of this: Bucharest, the country’s capital and biggest city, with a vibrant night life, only has three or so gay bars. And there are over 2 millions people living in Bucharest. Maybe it doesn’t seem very significant but in my opinion it really tells that gays hardly feel at home here. Civil unions for gays… maybe, but only if EU will insist on this subject. Same-sex marriage… I really doubt this will ever happen in my life time.
As for Diana Tusha, what can I say? Her logic is deeply flawed.
First, if same-sex marriage would be granted, it would force no one to do anything he/she doesn’t want: no straight people would be forced to marry a same-sex partner. It would only allow gay people to marry their loved one. If straight people may, why shouldn’t gay people may as well? Does Diana think that gay people are second-hand human beings? Seems so and this is deeply wrong.
Secondly, there are no aliens here at all. Does Diana think that gayness in Romania is imported? I have a news for her: there always were and there always will be Romanian gays because Romanians are human beings and some of the human beings are just that – gay. This is not a matter of choice or of imitating “alien recipes”, is just a fact of life. Shocking Diana, isn’t it? And being as much a human being as their fellow straight countrymen, Romanian gays are entitled to same rights, the right to marry their loved one included.
Daniel-Reader
Corruption is widespread in Romania, which isn’t family friendly at all since it violates the human rights of family members. The rule of law is a joke so the anti-discrimination laws are too. It’s unfortunate but not much different than many African nations where politicians make excuses about failing to protect other people’s human rights.