Not to be out-bigoted by their Russian neighbors, several cities in the notoriously sour country of Moldova have also banned “gay propaganda” in the last two weeks, leading Amnesty International to characterize the situation as a “dangerous climate” for LGBT Moldovans.
In Bălți, Moldova’s third largest city, a bill outlawing “aggressive propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation” has been passed. In the central city of Anenii Noi, a measure was approved to prevent what councilors called an “epidemic of homosexuality.” The northern villages of Chetriş and Hiliuţi also passed legislation to ban the construction of buildings connected with the practice of Islam or the promotion of homosexuality.
Each of the measures must now be registered with national authorities, and may be challenged before becoming law.
Says John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s deputy program director for Europe and Central Asia:
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“In effect, these decisions are inscribing into law discrimination against LGBTI people, and they stoke up a climate of hostility.
“Moldova’s constitution, as well as national laws, guarantees freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. A failure by the national authorities to overturn the local councils’ decisions will amount to violation of their national and international obligations.”
That Moldova is far from gay is no surprise: In his 2009 book The Geography of Bliss, author Eric Weiner called it the world’s most unhappy place.
In 2010, officials in the country’s capital of Chisnau banned a gay rally planned in the city center. In 2008, the Chisnau’s pride march was cancelled after anti-gay protestors surrounded and attacked the bus carrying the event’s 60 marchers, while police stood by and watched.
Photo by Veni Markovski
Tom in Lazybrook
I guess Moldova, which is now poorer on a per capita basis than INDIA, has decided that EU membership is not in their future. And they should be thrown out of ECHR as well.
prince of snides aka divkid
peeps, don’t forget to sign the ALLOUT st. petersburg petition (we’ve nearly made the goal but it’s slowed down, so one last push); then we can take on this place too.
we need to leverage our power in the only way they respect — withholding of dollar. all these tin pot dictatorships should be threatened with total artistic, cultural, and sporting boycotts the way apartheid south africa was.
and all celebrities of good conscience ought to swing behind this and not play these places.
Eric
How can anybody call Moldova an unhappy place! The people are a delight! Dont judge an entire nation by a few…
Kurtsa
oh how depressing….
Kieran
I just called my travel agent and told him to cancel my vacation in Moldoba…
Moldolia….Moldovia…..whatever the hell it’s called.
Alex
It makes me value our freedom of speech back home. Prevent someone from even talking about something you have essentially ended any further progress. It was sort of like that in the USA until days of the stonewall riots. Gay was not something people talked about and doing so would get you beat or arrested.