Invoking memories
of last weekend's violent reaction to a gay pride march
in Moscow, a right-wing Christian group in Romania announced
plans Thursday to protest a pride march in the
country's capital, Bucharest, on Saturday. Last year's
inaugural march incited dozens of antigay protesters,
and this year they will be better organized, staging a
countermarch in support of so-called family values and
faith, the Associated Press reports.
"The aim is to affirm and defend moral values
such as the family, faith, and normalcy in society,"
the New Right group said in a statement, according to
the AP. "The march is a reaction to the way the
homosexual style is being forced in Romania, which started
with the legalizing of homosexuality in 2001."
That year Romania
decriminalized homosexuality after joining the European
Union. The country has also banned discrimination against
people because of their sexual orientation as well as
their sex, age, or ethnicity.
In addition to announcing plans to stage their
own march, the New Right group filed a complaint in a
Bucharest court calling for the gay pride march to be
halted, the AP reports. Their complaint alleges that the
march is "a demonstration designed to provoke, obscene and antisocial."
More than 80% of Romania's 22 million citizens
belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which has
condemned the march. But despite public opposition to
LGBT rights, Romanian gay activists launched a campaign
earlier this week to have same-sex marriage legalized.
(The Advocate)
