Romania wants to protect its children – except for the queer ones

“We ride with pride”. I instinctively pull out my phone to take a photo of the slogan plastered across every single subway station in Vienna alongside rainbow flags of all sizes and ads preaching equality. Yet, posting the picture I just took on my social media accounts would feel wrong: This prideful reality only stretches as far as the country’s borders, more realistically even just as far as the city lines. Which is why it does not even come within reach of the place I had called home for most of my life – I do not have the privilege of riding with pride when in Romania, my former home, pride is being ripped away from our community more and more violently every day.

What actually happened?

On the 1^st of February, 2022, seven representatives of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RO: UDMR), a conservative and relatively influential party in the Romanian parliament, presented the proposition of a list of changes to law NR. 272/2004 regarding the protection and promotion of children’s rights. After its proposal, the bill was approved by multiple instances of the Romanian government, including the Commission of Education, of Health and Family, and – as a final punch to the gut for the Romanian queer community – even the Commission of Equality Between Men and Women. The approval of the two latter Commissions is what became known to the public in late May and June 2022, making the entire initiative resemble an even bigger mockery of LGBTQ+ rights during Pride Month in June. Thankfully, despite receiving the approval of these specific Commissions, in order for the law to come into use and be weaponized against the queer community, it is still required to pass through the hands of other organs of the state – most importantly, those of the president.

“Homosexual propaganda” – a crime as grave as all forms of child abuse?

The most crucial aspects of the proposed law affecting the LGBTQ+ Community would be the following:

UDMR’s legislative proposition calls for a child’s right to “identity”: a term they defined to refer only to name, citizenship, nationality and biological sex. The bill would add strict specifications regarding who has the right of determining the biological sex of a child, which must be determined and registered at birth. The child has the right to “not have the ability to change or in any way modify the sex assigned to them at birth” – which, of course, can only be male or female.
In an article on children’s access to sex education, which would serve the purpose of informing about contraception, teenage pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the term “sex education” was replaced by the term “health education”. Parents would also be able to opt their children out of these classes.
In an article regarding a child’s right to be protected from abuse, neglect, exploitation, trafficking, illegal migration, kidnapping, violence, and pornography, the bill adds the protection from “the spreading of any content regarding the deviation from the sex assigned at birth, the change of the assigned sex, or of homosexuality”.

The consequences of the proposed “protection” of children’s rights would be incredibly harmful to the LGBTQ+ community –this assessment is not based on pure assumption or deduction, but rather on observing how this exact law with the same argumentation has been used by Russian and Hungarian homophobic policies. To put it simply: If the bill would be approved, virtually anything containing the slightest mention of the queer community could (and most likely will) be classified as “homosexual propaganda” and therefore be criminalized.

Laws and additions such as these are the basis upon which conservative countries that do not separate religion and state build up to the overall criminalization of homosexuality. Of course, according to UDMR representatives, it is not possible for Romania to go down this road of secularism. In the “Statement of Reasoning” that the party submitted along with the proposed modifications, the first argument presented is that “new ideologies” threaten the traditional, Christian family. Sadly, it is hard to imagine that politicians such as the ones approving this project are not after the goal of completely eliminating the shrivels of equality which the LGBTQ+ community has managed to carve for themselves against all odds in the last decade.

Even though this last modification criminalizing queer content might be the one with the most imminent dangerous consequences, the other two articles addressed would also have negative impacts on the safety of children and youth all over Romania. The approval of the first article on the definition of identity would not only make it legally impossible for transgender individuals to get gender-affirming surgeries and the required medical care, but also place them entirely outside of the law. If a child has the so-called right to not in any way be able to change the factors constituting their “identity”, does that not simply mean that a child is deprived of the right to choose?

Additionally, in regard to the second article on access to sex education, children and youth in vulnerable situations across the country would only end up further being deprived of fair access to education. If a child’s permission to get reliable information regarding their health, body, and sex life depends solely on the approval of a caretaker, this leaves those in vulnerable families perpetually unable to break the cycle of disinformation, poverty, and disinterest that is so heavily impacting the entire country. This begs the question: in a country where over 650 children fall pregnant every year and/ or give birth under the age of 15, do we truly not have the right to a government that cares about actually helping its nation?

Does the Romanian government think that the third time’s a charm?

Sadly, this is not the only example of such an attempt by political parties to crack down on LGBTQ+ rights. Amongst the most prominent and publicized efforts was the 2018 referendum aiming to change article 48 of the Constitution, which defines family as “based on the consensual marriage between spouses, their equality, and their duty as parents to raise, educate, and advise their children”. The proposed new wording of the Family-Coalition, with the support of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Catholic Church, replaced “between spouses” with “between a man and a woman”. If successful, the referendum would have meant yet another, far more threatening bump in the road to equal rights – thankfully, due to intense protests from activist organizations in Romania, such as ACCEPT and MozaiQ, as well as general discontent of the population, this project failed.

Just two years later, in May of 2020, a law was proposed that would forbid any and all mentions of gender within the academic field – be it in schools or universities. Just as the project to change the law on the protection and promotion of children’s rights is causing unease in Romania at the moment, the 2020 law also came quite a long way before ultimately being rightfully called anti-constitutional and finally being denied by the country’s president.

What conclusion can we draw from this? To say that there is no hope for the queer community in Romania would mean to diminish the admirable work done by activists and queer charities and projects: no matter how far these laws came in Senate or Parliament, ultimately, they did not pass – and their failure was a direct result of the community’s relentless disapproval and protests. No matter how many times government officials actively tried to sabotage the progress that had been made, the Romanian queer scene stood up against them, loud and proud. And yet, bad things still threaten to keep happening.

Every spark needs to be fanned

In the end, the thing that threatens Romanian queer youth the most is the very system and legislature that had the duty of protecting them: not only as part of their duties derived from children’s rights, but as a direct consequence of legislation 137/2000 regarding the prevention of discrimination. What is terrifying is that, as we watch these numerous homophobic laws be proposed and thankfully be shut down one by one, queer couples are still violently assaulted in broad daylight, queer children are still ostracized by peers and mentors alike, our community still faces discrimination everywhere on the daily, and the fear in everyone’s heart wonders: “What will happen if one of these laws finally passes?”

What we, as an international community, need to focus on, is to prevent that from ever happening: While no one can stop proposals such as the one attempting to infringe on young people’s rights from being made, people must keep standing up for change. That is how we hope to shut down this recent project, and that is how we will tirelessly keep shutting down any attempt to silence or hurt the queer community, especially our most vulnerable groups – and amongst these, the queer youth. And, even from a distance, we are responsible to support those protesting in their home countries – no matter what country we’re talking about – by holding those countries and their governments accountable. By spreading awareness regarding international issues, we draw attention to preventable abuses of power, no matter where in the world we are; and, dare I say, especially if we live in countries that “have it better”.

I did end up posting the picture I took of the “We ride with pride” sign on my social media: but it was not with an easy heart, nor was it only accompanied by a cute rainbow sticker to celebrate Pride. My picture was accompanied by a short text regarding how bittersweet it can be to see messages like these in places so far from my former home: it is a rough reminder that my country has a terribly long way to go to reach the acceptance I’ve experienced since moving to Vienna, yet it still shows me that pride is not unachievable. One day, I know that the empowering activists that stayed in Romania will achieve more and more significant successes: and, who knows, maybe some time in the future we will also be able to ride with pride instead of only protesting with it.