Romania may vote to ban gay marriage this weekend

In 2001, gay rights activist Florin Buhuceanu left Romania for a self-described exile in Canada after his partner was harassed by the Romanian police.

He returned after six or seven months. The decriminalization of homosexuality that year and what he calls a civic duty to stand in solidarity with his community were major factors in his decision not only to return to Romania, but to stay in the country — a decision he has never regretted.

"It was also a spiritual responsibility," Buhuceanu said. "There were so many that were smashed. Destroyed psychologically and emotionally due to the trauma they experienced."

He currently serves as the president of Accept, a Romanian LGBT rights organization that also serves as the country's representative to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Almost two decades have passed since Romania decriminalized homosexuality, and the progress of LGBT rights has been slow, as the country recognizes neither gay marriage nor civil unions. Now, Buhuceanu and other LGBT Romanians are facing the prospect of a change to the nation's constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.

Until now, for many LGBT Romanians, the ambiguity of the wording in Article 48, the part of the Romanian Constitution that deals with family, has been a source of hope.

Article 48 states: "The family is founded on the freely consented marriage of the spouses, their full equality, as well as the right and duty of the parents to ensure the upbringing, education and instruction of their children," the key wording being the definition of a family as a marriage between spouses — not a man and a woman.

Coaliția pentru Familie (Coalition for Family), a conglomeration of 41 conservative groups in Romania, has been one of the major political forces pushing for a referendum to amend Romania's constitution to ban gay marriage by officially defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

The group, also known as CpF, gathered 3 million signatures in favor of changing the constitution in 2017; this is the basis of the current referendum.

The referendum has the support of most major political parties in Romania, including the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the current ruling party.

The referendum vote is scheduled on Oct. 6 and 7.

Buhuceanu said that LGBT Romanians still struggle with a legacy of invisibility, carried over from Romania being one of the last countries to decriminalize homosexuality.

This invisibility, he said, makes it easy for conservative forces, like the Romanian Orthodox Church and Coaliția pentru Familie, to accuse LGBT Romanians of destroying "family values."

"It's a rhetoric of hate," Buhuceanu said. "We are seen as child thieves, stealing children away from the traditional family."

Buhuceanu said that these factors make this referendum a crucial moment for the country. "Homophobia in Romanian society is solid. It's exploited politically, and that's why we have ended up with his referendum."

Vlad Viski, executive director of MozaiQ, an LGBT grassroots organization in Romania, said that his group is encouraging a boycott of the vote.

For Americans currently preparing for the midterms, abstaining from the vote might seem odd — but in Romania, if less than 30 percent of registered voters vote, the referendum will be rendered invalid.

"There's the principle that human rights should not be a matter of voting because for minorities such as LGBT groups, there might be a majority that is not friendly to them," Viski said.

While conservative groups like CpF do represent a threat to LGBT Romanians, Viski is confident that Romanians will "not give into the manipulation of conservative groups."

However, the influence of religion on Romanians is strong, and some are even changing their Facebook profile pictures to express their support for banning gay marriage.

Romanian Adriana Darmanescu doubts that she will be able to vote, as she currently lives in Innsbruck, Austria, with her husband and two children, around 125 miles away from the nearest polling station.

If she was going to vote, Darmanescsu said, she would vote in favor of changing the constitution because of her religious beliefs, as she does not believe God supports gay marriage.

"Let us not forget what happened with Sodom and Gomorrah. We must not judge sin, nor encourage it," she said. "I lean in this direction not to judge those with different orientations, but because when I go to Romania, I do not want my children to attend their parades."

The invisibility of the LGBT community and the prevalence of religion in Romania have inspired partnerships between CpF and American right-wing groups.  Among these is the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy organization classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBT ideology.

According to CpF's Facebook page, ADF has supported it since 2016.

"It's all connected," Viski of MozaiQ said. For better or for worse — and there definitely is a positive side to this double-edged sword.

"There's a common history. People do know about Stonewall," he said, referring to the 1969 protests in New York, often regarded as the birth of the gay civil rights movement. "Trans people in Romania are empowered by Laverne Cox. People are affected by America in Romania."

For this reason, Viski said, it is important for people around the world to show solidarity with the LGBT community in Romania. "This fight is not just our fight," he said.

But this fight has been a long fight — and when Buhuceanu was asked if he thinks legal gay marriage in Romania will happen in his lifetime, he laughed and said, "I'm sure I will see civil partnerships recognized."

In his lifetime, Buhuceanu said, he hopes to see the beginnings of a discussion that would lead to the legalization of gay marriage. "For this, you need to have members of the LGBT community be visible. You need to have people say this is who we are and what we want."

Romania has made progress, and currently has two annual LGBT pride parades in Bucharest, the capital, and Cluj, a major city.

While more young Romanians are coming out, the country's LGBT community is still scarred by a history of persecution.

"The kind of terror we lived through has no way of disappearing," Buhuceanu said. "It's become part of our baggage as a community. We wear a type of fear on our backs. It will not disappear easily."