The Romanian city of Oradea has banned two LGBT gatherings sparking complaints by advocacy groups that the city is violating the minority’s rights who accused the City Hall of ‘”institutionalized homophobia.”
Same-sex rights groups accused the mayor, Florin Birta, of trampling on “liberal values and restricting the rights of the LGBTI community in Oradea,” a city in western Romania by not allowing them to hold public events.
Oradea is the “first municipality in Romania to follow the example of Poland, trying to be “LGBTI free”, LGBT rights group ACCEPT said in a statement Friday.
Mayor Florin Birta, of the National Liberal Party, rejected the accusations saying: “nobody has a problem with LGBT+ events.”
Romania decriminalized homosexuality in 2001, decades later than other parts of the European Union. It still bars marriage and civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Attitudes toward same-sex couples have relaxed in recent years in the socially conservative country but intolerance is still widespread.
ACCEPT said Oradea City Hall declined to approve a LGBT community public gathering in a city park following a request they submitted on July 25.
Some 500 people, members of the LGBTI community, friends and supporters were expected to attend a series of workshops and film screenings on LGBTI rights on Aug. 11.
Organizers were informed on Aug. 2 that the event was not approved because the Oradea City Hall had already approved another event, organized by the Baptist and Pentecostal communities in the same location.
The City Hall cited a law that does not allow for two demonstrations to be held in same place at the same time. The decision was allegedly taken without consulting with the organizers.
Mayor Birta told ebihoreanul.ro that “nobody has a problem” with LGBT+ events.” He said there was a room in the Oradea Fortress that held Oradea Pride rallies. He claimed accusations against the city hall were “baseless” and “contradicted reality.”
The ARK Oradea group said it had submitted a new request to hold activities on the same day in one of the city’s six parks, but that request was also rejected on Aug. 6 on the same grounds.
“We were not notified of the existence of another event, until the last minute. I mention that at meeting of the Commission for the Approval of Public Meetings, which took place on August 2, 2024, we were not contacted in advance and we were not asked to participate in any way. Although in the second request to the Commission, I expressly requested to participate in the hearing, we did not receive permission to motivate our request this time too. We consider this … this to be ..a form of restricting the freedom of expression and assembly of our community” – said Iulian Dițiu, president of the ARK Oradea.
“We had and have all the availability to collaborate with the local authorities in order to organize, in safe conditions, a public assembly of the LGBTI community in Oradea. … but according to …Mayor Florin Birta, there is absolutely no public space in which the community LGBTI to be able to meet in a visible and responsible way in the entire city,” Dițiu added.
“Without a doubt, this is about homophobia and institutionalized transphobia,” Ditiu said. “This is the second year in which an attempt has been made to block the entire space with the approval of the authorities. Using various tricks, invoking religious freedom, violates the provisions of the legislation on public assemblies and anti-discrimination legislation.”
“The actions of Mayor Florin Birta are not representative of the liberal values that he and the party claim to have. This is the kind of behavior we would have accepted if (populist party) AUR won elections in Oradea,” said Teodora Ion-Rotaru Roseti, co-president of ACCEPT Association.
She said it was “unacceptable that Oradea authorities resort to such undemocratic tactics in order to limit the the rights of an already marginalized community.”
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