Around 15.000 people took to the streets of Bucharest to demonstrate for the rights of sexual and gender minorities. The Romanian parliament is currently debating a law against sexual diversity. According to the organizers, well over 15.000 people marched through the Romanian capital on Saturday, accompanied by a large police presence.
Registered partnerships for same-sex couples do not yet exist in Romania. The party representing the Hungarian minority is currently attempting to pass an anti-LGBT law similar to the one in neighboring Hungary. This law would prohibit the dissemination of information about sexual diversity in schools.
“The fact that Pride marches are getting bigger while far-right groups are getting smaller is a positive sign,” said Norwegian Tor-Hugne Olsen, head of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), who advocates for the rights of lesbians and gay men. “But at the same time, we are seeing draft legislation that aims to curtail the rights of LGBT people, including their access to sex education.”
The party representing the Hungarian minority in Romania has introduced a draft law aimed at preventing the "promotion of homosexuality and gender reassignment" among minors. The text is modeled on a controversial Hungarian law, which the European Commission has also denounced as discriminatory and is therefore challenging legally against the government of right-wing conservative Viktor Orbán.
