Eastern Europe was once a world lear on gay rights. Then ran out of spegoats | CNN

Contents:

• FIRST RSIA, THEN HUNGARY, NOW ROMANIA IS CONSIRG A 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW 
• EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS

FIRST RSIA, THEN HUNGARY, NOW ROMANIA IS CONSIRG A 'GAY PROPAGANDA' LAW 

In fact, the past three s have seen huge progrs for LGBT rights Romania: homosexualy was wholly crimalized (1996), the age of nsent was equalized (2002), anti-discrimatn laws the workplace and regardg the provisn of servic were troduced (2000). In fact, the only law agast gay cizens Romania is that prohibg same-sex marriage; this is unlikely to change any time soon given that public opn, unr the fluence of the church, is still very much agast . Currently, relig and nservative anizatns are mobilizg to hold a referendum on amendg the nstutn so that will enshre marriage as ‘between a man and a woman’; this would make legalizg gay marriage much more difficult and is seen by many as a step backwards.

Thanks to the efforts of advocy anizatns like ACCEPT Romania, attus are slowly changg, and the gay muny is beg more open and active across the untry, although there is still a sizable gap between cy and untry. While overall public attus towards the LGBT muny are still que negative, gay travelers should not allow this to put them off gog to this betiful untry; however, people should be aware of the potential hostily they uld enunter. In an tertg way, is almost more important to be wary Romania than a untry where homosexualy is pletely prohibed; while is legal Romania, the untry is an -between zone where the populatn is more aware of the LGBT muny, and therefore hostile attus are also more out the open.

Gay Marriage⚭✖ Foreign same-sex marriag regnized onlyCensorship✔ No censorshipChangg Genr✖ Legal, but requir surgeryNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedEmployment Discrimatn✔ Sexual orientatn and genr intyHog Discrimatn✔ Sexual orientatn and genr intyConversn Therapy✖ Not banned. Current statSce Jan 15, 2008Legal The first versn of the qutnnaire stated that male homosexuals, Ain cizens om untri fected wh malaria, unted people, as well as other tegori of people nnot donate blood Romania.

EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS

In the Uned Kgdom, Sectn 28 — a 1988 law that said lol ernments uld not "promote homosexualy" — chilled lol ernment support for LGBT iativ and fueled anti-LGBT harassment until was repealed the early 2000s. While the laws are motivated by homophobia and transphobia, they purport to rt on an unfound belief that discsns of sexual orientatn and genr inty are not age-appropriate for young children. BUCHAREST -- Romania is nsirg a bill that would ban mors om beg exposed to so-lled "gay propaganda" schools and public life, spe warngs om rights groups that would "fuel Rsian propaganda and disrmatn mpaigns" and restate censorship the former munist untry.

"If a child is on the street and se a Pri march, or if he or she se a story about gay issu on televisn, or watch a film approved by the Romanian thori that has LGBT issu, " the would all be illegal unr the law, Ion-Rotar said. One article of the proposed law says that a child "has the right to be protected agast the spreadg of ntent through any means about the viatn om sex which is tablished at birth (by a doctor) or the popularizatn of sex change or homosexualy.