t’s no secret that gay life in Romania is quite a challenge! Whether it’s one of online polls showing how much Romanian society opposes homosexuality or that hideous referendum in 2018 to ban gay unions (which for the record, failed!), it sure ain’t easy.
We even got a flavour of Romanian homophobia as gay travellers: when approaching a bunch of hotels in Bucharest and Brașov asking whether they’re ok to host a gay couple and allow us to share a double bed, the response we got from quite a lot of them (like the Rembrandt Hotel in Bucharest and the Aro Palace Hotel in Brașov ) was along the lines of:
“We welcome you but on condition you understand we have children in the hotel so all inappropriate behaviour should be avoided in public areas”
…of course…’cause that’s all Seb and I apparently are seen to do as a gay couple…frolic around naked everywhere, shagging everything in sight, children included….ffs!!
Yet despite the homophobic atmosphere prevalent across Romanian society, the country’s LGBTQ community has made great strides towards equality. For example, Romania has full anti-discrimination laws in place (which include hate speech), and every day, more and more politicians are coming out in favour of legalising civil unions. Oh and that awful referendum to ban civil unions in 2018? It simply failed due to lack of voter turnout (30% needed, they only got 20.4%).