Invoking memories of last weekend's violent reaction to a gay pride march in Moscow, a right-wing Christian group in Romania announced plans Thursday to protest a pride march in the country's capital, Bucharest, on Saturday. Last year's inaugural march incited dozens of antigay protesters, and this year they will be better organized, staging a countermarch in support of so-called family values and faith, the Associated Press reports. "The aim is to affirm and defend moral values such as the family, faith, and normalcy in society," the New Right group said in a statement, according to the AP. "The march is a reaction to the way the homosexual style is being forced in Romania, which started with the legalizing of homosexuality in 2001."
That year Romania decriminalized homosexuality after joining the European Union. The country has also banned discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation as well as their sex, age, or ethnicity. In addition to announcing plans to stage their own march, the New Right group filed a complaint in a Bucharest court calling for the gay pride march to be halted, the AP reports. Their complaint alleges that the march is "a demonstration designed to provoke, obscene and antisocial." More than 80% of Romania's 22 million citizens belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which has condemned the march. But despite public opposition to LGBT rights, Romanian gay activists launched a campaign earlier this week to have same-sex marriage legalized. (The Advocate)
