Expert Profile: Cristina Vaileanu on Rights and Risks for Romania's LGBT Community

Cristina Vaileanu is the Capacity Building Specialist for IREX’s Biblionet program.  For this year’s 16 Days Against Gender Violence, we asked her about the state of the LGBT community in Romania.

What are some of the primary issues facing the LGBT community in Romania and how is it affected by violence?

I think that the biggest problem in Romania is the low level of social acceptance for LGBT persons. A 2010 study showed that one in two Romanians would not sit at the same table with a gay person and 75% of Romanians would be very upset if they had a gay family member.

This generates a lot of physical and psychological violence in public and private spaces against LGBT persons and is the main reason why they do not “come out.” This month, six young women and men were physically assaulted by a group of ten people in downtown Bucharest after attending an academic debate about the history of homosexuality in Romania.

Since 2006, every Gay Pride parade is followed by a counter demonstration by right-wing groups entitled ‘March for Normality’ with offensive slogans against gay rights and the recognition of same-sex relationships. The LGBT community in Romania produced this video in response to this ongoing hostility and human rights abuses.

You are a Board member of ACCEPT, an LGBT rights-focused organization, can you tell us more about that organization, and what other non-governmental or governmental organizations are addressing these issues?

ACCEPT is the first and, unfortunately, one of the very few active Romanian non-governmental organizations that defends and promotes the rights of LGBT persons at the national level. ACCEPT educates the public and the media on LGBT issues; monitors the observance of the rights and liberties of LGBT people; works in coalitions with organizations that promote the rights of minorities; and develops services that address the specific needs of LGBT persons in Romania (legal, psychological, and health counseling services). 

There is also a governmental agency, the National Council for Combating Discrimination that was established in 2001 and is responsible for applying Romanian and European Union anti-discrimination laws and managing the National Anti-Discrimination Plan. Unfortunately, this Plan is under-funded. There are fewer and fewer active donors in Romania that promote diversity, let alone promoting LGBT rights. Romania remains very socially conservative and discriminatory towards its LGBT citizens and the political decision-makers are very openly resistant to publicly supporting any LGBT issue.

Are there policies or legislation in place in Romania to combat human rights abuses against the LGBT community?

Although Romania has a rather solid anti-discrimination legislation which ensures equal rights to all Romanian citizens and covers discrimination based on sexual orientation, the enforcement of the law is not very strong. Transgender people’s rights are even more challenged. Legal gender recognition occurs only after compulsory divorce (if relevant) and compulsory sterilization.

Also, Romania does not recognize any type of same-sex civil partnership or marriage and none of the derived civil rights. Gay marriage rights are even used as a political weapon during elections, with rivals accusing one another of supporting the legalization of gay marriage in order to slander them.

Fortunately, since Romania became a candidate country for the European Union in 2000, there has been significant progress made in LGBT rights legislation. Homosexuality was fully decriminalized; a wide-ranging anti-discrimination law was introduced; and laws were introduced against homophobic-based crimes. In 2006, Human Rights Watch named Romania as one of five countries in the world that had made ‘exemplary progress in combating rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity.’

These advancements are promising but there is still a lot of work to be done here!