Ten people were
injured and dozens arrested when militant protesters
trying to break up a gay rights march clashed with riot
police in the Romanian capital on Saturday. Hundreds
of gay rights activists marched through downtown
Bucharest to protest discrimination in the largely
conservative country and to call for the legalization of
same-sex marriage. But the parade was disrupted by
more than a thousand right-wing counterprotesters who
threw eggs, stones, and plastic bottles at the
activists, who were shielded by police in trucks.
Some of the mob, including Orthodox nuns and a
priest, carried crosses and chanted, "Romania does not
need you." Many protesters clashed with police, who
fired tear gas and used clubs to hold them at bay. They
detained 51 people.
Homosexuality is legal in Romania, which hopes
to join the European Union in 2007, but the public
largely accepts the powerful Orthodox Church's view
that it is a sin and a disease. (Sirius OutQ News)