By Razvan
This article is written by a gay Romanian teen who lives in Bucharest. The full names of the teen and his boyfriend have not been used because of fears of further “persecution”. A few minor corrections for English grammar have been made, otherwise it is how the teenager wrote it.
Romania is due to become a member State of the European Union in 2007 and is already a signatory to the European convention on Human Rights. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Romania in 2002, but not “in the hearts and minds of the majority of Romanians”, as our 17-years-old correspondent succinctly puts it.
My name is ‘Razvan’, I’m a 17 year-old teenager in Romania. And the worst part...I’m gay. I realised I was gay at about 14 and, unlike 99% of other gay Romanians, I chose to come out of the closet.
This only brought bad things to me, such as beatings from my parents, discrimination at schools from teachers and peers.
When my dad followed me once to see if his suppositions were true and he saw me with my boyfriend, he waited for me to come home and he beat me.
I am ashamed of going out of my home, because everyone shouts “faggot” and other such names at me.
In the high school were I study, one of the best in Romania, the students and teachers are a bit more informed on homosexuality issues, but I still have to face discriminatory jokes from teachers and from some of my peers.
Now this is what happened to me last weekend when I was out in the park with my boyfriend.
Did you know that for the simple fact of holding hands and kissing your same sex lover at 11:30 pm in a park you can be spat on, beaten, fined, called “faggot, sissy, and depraved freak” and some words I am really ashamed of mentioning, by the police?
I was with my boyfriend ‘T’ in a big park in Bucharest. We were lying on the grass and looking at the sky, and cuddling. About 10 metres away were a boy and girl doing much the same as us – but more.
Out of nowhere, we were blinded by a flashlight. A loud male voice ordered us to come in the alley. “Fucking fags, move your dirty asses over here,” the voice said.
When I saw that the voice belonged to a huge BGS (a security service) employee, I had the typical “fight or run” reaction. But my boyfriend who was used to this sort of thing, stopped me from doing something stupid like running away. Thus, we were encircled by three BGS park guardians.
They hit us, took my glasses and threw them away, they beat up me and my boyfriend, they cursed us, all under the pretext they just needed to see our ID cards.
I cannot reproduce here all the details of this ‘operation Mogadishu’. In a short while, a police car arrived and our identities were transmitted to the police station.
The outcome? A criminal record or a fine of 500 "new" Romania Lei (about £95, €140, $US 178) for disturbing the public peace – and some threats and gross propositions to me and my boyfriend.
One of the cops said: “I should tie you up with chains and fuck you until you are cured of your sickness, you perverts”. Also, they threatened that they would catch us when they are not on duty and beat us again, with no witnesses. Then they ironically said “Good night boys!”, and let us go.
I will never forget the hypocrisy with which they said they only wanted to see our id’s, that they were only doing their job, when at 10 metres distance, a girl and a boy were having sex in the bushes.
Also, I will never forget the threats and the humiliation, and the hateful looks of the men of the law, and other things to shameful to be mentioned. I saw people degraded to the level of monkeys, paid on Romanian people’s money.
Two days after that, one of the cops, who lives in the same building as me, spread the news about my homosexuality throughout the neighbourhood and yesterday three boys attacked me.
Also, I am ashamed of going out of my building because the people yell “faggot” and “move away”. My parents are humiliated for being the parents of a fag. I really don’t know what to do any more.
My boyfriend who is 26 is used to this lifestyle, but at least he is independent and lives on his own and earns money. I still live with my parents. Yesterday, I wanted to kill myself. Only some good friends talked me out of it.
If something doesn't change soon, I don’t know what I'll do. I see that in other countries gay people have a right to marry, well in my country we don’t deserve to live. The worst part is nobody is doing anything, and 99% of gay people live in darkness.
Even though homosexuality is fully legal and protected under anti-discrimination laws, homophobia and violence against LGBT people remains widespread in Romania and is seldom investigated

Two gay teens were fined and assaulted by police on 27 July at around 23:30 after cuddling, holding hands and kissing in a public park in Bucharest, Romania. According to their report, the two were subject to humiliation and physical assault by the officers and park guardians, who had approached them on the pretext of checking their identification cards. After beating up the two, one of the officers allegedly said that, "I should tie you up with chains and fuck you until you are cured of your sickness". The two teens were each fined 500 lei (approximately €140 or USD179) for "disturbing the public peace", the other alternative being a criminal record for the same offence. They consider this charge to be ungrounded and an act of discrimination against sexual orientation, considering that a heterosexual couple were not prosecuted for engaging in similar acts a few metres away. One of the teens stated that:

:''I will never forget the hypocrisy with which they said they only wanted to see our ID’s, that they were only doing their job, when at 10 metres distance, a girl and a boy were having sex in the bushes.''

Additionally, the police officers threatened the teens that they would beat them again, with "no witnesses", when they were off duty.

Homosexuality, including public manifestations of it, was decriminalised in Romania in 2001, when Article 200 of the Penal Code was fully repealed. Since 2000, the country has an anti-discrimination law which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, despite this, social attitudes remain conservative and discrimination remains widespread and rarely reported and investigated, with the 2006 Bucharest GayFest, held in early June, provoking a violent reaction from many passers-by, even if it took place successfully due to heavy police protection. Gay rights organisations have also complained that when the anti-discrimination law is applied, fines are too low (the average fine for an employer discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation is about 300 lei, or less than €100 or $128).