- Title: ROMANIA: FIRST GAY PARADE MARCH IN BUCHAREST
- Date: 28th May 2005
- Summary: (BN14)BUCHAREST,ROMANIA (MAY28,2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF GAY PARADE IN THE CENTRE OF BUCHAREST WITH BANNER READING "OUT AND PROUD" 0.10 2. SLV MARCHERS WAVING RAINBOW FLAGS 0.17 3. SLV MAN ON BIKE WEARING HUGE BLACK WIG 0.25 4. BACK VIEW OF WOMEN IN MARCH 0.29 5. SLV PEOPLE IN MARCH WEARING MASKS 0.35 6. CLOSE O
- Embargoed: 12th June 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUCHAREST,ROMANIA
- Country: Romania
- Reuters ID: LVA8GO8080JELZF042MWXQ2T7H5T
- Story Text: Police hold back anti-gay protesters as homosexuals
and lesbians march in first gay parade since fall of
communism in Romania.
Around 500 Romanian gays marched through downtown
Bucharest on Sunday (May 28) in the first homosexual march
in the ex-communist country's history.
Romania, which aims to join the European Union in 2007,
decriminalised homosexuality in 2001 as part of reforms
needed to join the wealthy bloc, but most gays are still
hiding for fear of prejudice and discrimination.
Homosexuals and lesbians holding banners reading "Out
and proud" and "Stop prejudice, I love who I want" walked
surrounded by riot police who kept at a distance people who
shouted "Shame on you," "get out of Romania" and
"homosexuality is a sin".
Riot police briefly detained 10 members of the far
right organisation "New Right" who tried to break the
police ranks and surge towards the marchers, waving banners
reading "Against homosexuality, for normality."
Homosexual behaviour was punishable with jail terms of
up to five years in Romania before 2001.
Thousands of homosexuals were jailed after the
communists passed a decree banning homosexuality in 1968
and hundreds more were sent to prison after the 1989 bloody
revolution which ousted Stalinist dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu.
Gays are viewed with hostility by the public in the
Balkan country of 22 million, with most people largely
accepting the powerful Orthodox church's view of
homosexuality as a sin and a disease.
Participants in the march said they hoped the
initiative would contribute to curbing discrimination, with
many complaining they were ridiculed by people on the
street because of their clothes or being forced to leave
their jobs after they admitted they were homosexuals.
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