Romania: Academic debate on gay history followed by brutal attack

Nov. 9, 2012 - PRLog -- Gay star news is reporting that the Romanian LGBT rights Accept association state that seven young women and men have been physically assaulted by a group of ten people wearing hoods, in downtown Bucharest, after attending an academic debate about the history of homosexuality in Romania.

"It is reported that two people were injured and taken to the hospitals emergency unit -one being admitted to the plastics surgery ward whilst the other one was discharged later that night.

The attackers claimed they were opposing the ‘organization of gay events’ during the assault,

Executive director of Accept Irina Nita said:
‘We are firmly requesting the authorities in charge with the public safety of the citizens to review the necessary procedures, in order to adequately apply the hate crime law in Romania.

‘People have the need to feel safe and to express themselves in safety, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, opinion or faith.

‘It lies within the responsibility of the authorities to make sure these rights are protected and to punish the criminals that break the law’.

Accept has said it will closely monitor the way in which authorities investigate the situation, so that the offenders are brought to justice.

Although the Romanian legal system treats homophobic intent as an aggravating factor in common crimes and has a rather progressive anti-hate crime law for ex-eastern block countries it is not always enforced.

The fact that the crime was motivated by homophobic bias can lead to a higher sentence and I sincerely hope that it is the case in this instance.

Romania has made significant progress in LGBT rights legislation since 2000 and it would send a clear message that homophobia and hate crimes are not tolerated by the authorities.

Romania’s reluctance to use its anti homophobic laws was illustrated during Bucharest Gay Pride 2006 when several participants were assaulted in the subway and the authorities failed to sanction the criminals. The prosecution dropped the case after five years because it was unable to identify the offenders, in spite of the fact that there were surveillance cameras in the subway and eye witness testimony and pictures of the offenders were also available.

During Bucharest Gay Pride 2006, Noua Dreaptă, a far right movement, organised a counter demonstration entitled ‘Marches for Normality’ complete  with offensive slogans against gay rights and the recognition of same-sex relationships that went unchallenged by the authorities.

In the past decade Romania has fully decriminalised homosexuality, introduced wide-ranging anti-discrimination laws, equalised the age of consent and introduced laws against homophobic hate crimes.

In 2006, Human Rights Watch named Romania as one of five countries in the world that had made ‘exemplary progress in combating rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity’.

Romania however remains very socially conservative and even discriminatory towards its LGBTcitizens."

http://www.prlog.org/12020141-romania-academic-debate-on-gay-history-followed-by-brutal-attack.html