Bucharest Pride, known previously as GayFest, is the annual festival dedicated to LGBT rights in Romania, taking place in Bucharest for nearly a week. It first took place in 2004 and now occurs in May–June of each year, culminating with the March of Diversity (). It is organised by the non-profit organisation ACCEPT, the country's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights organisation. The festival also receives funding from the Romanian Ministry of Health and the National Council for Combating Discrimination, as well as a number of private organisations, such as the Open Society Institute and the British Council in Romania.
Bucharest Pride features various LGBT cultural events, such as film screenings, art exhibitions, theatre and parties, as well as seminars and debates concerning LGBT social issues; since 2005 the festival has also included a gay pride parade.
Background The Romanian gay rights movement began gaining ground in the mid-1990s, after homosexual sex between two consenting adults in private was decriminalised in 1996. In the same year, Romania's first gay rights organisation, Accept, was founded in Bucharest, with two core aims: creating a better society for LGBT people in Romania, and changing negative social attitudes towards LGBT people.About ACCEPT, Accept In the late 1990s, the LGBT rights movement was mainly concerned with lobbying for the repeal of Article 200, which continued to criminalise public displays and promotion of homosexuality. In this context, the issue of organising a gay pride festival was not viable, particularly considering that public manifestations of homosexuality could have been prosecuted under Section 5 of Article 200, which read:
In October 2000, while Article 200 was still in force, ACCEPT hosted the 22nd European Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association in Bucharest. The event attracted around 100 participants from 27 countries, and created substantial dialogue and media attention about LGBT rights in Romania.The Annual ILGA-Europe Conference takes place in Bucharest , Accept, 8 October 2000
After pressure from ACCEPT as well as the European Union and the Council of Europe, Article 200 was repealed completely at the end of 2001, removing the last anti-gay law in Romania. Additionally, anti-discrimination legislation introduced in 2000 made it illegal to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. This permitted a greater social visibility of LGBT people and culture, with several gay clubs opening from 2002 onwards. In this context, the organisation of a gay pride festival became much more viable, with ACCEPT seeking to use these festivals in order to further enhance the visibility of LGBT people, and, particularly through an emphasis on cultural events, further its aim of changing negative social attitudes toward LGBT people in Romania.
Editions
Bucharest Pride Attendance Year Number of attendees 2004 Not known 2005 300 2006 800 2007 500 2008 300 2009 100 2010 100 2011 150 2012 200 2013 400 2014 400 2015 1,000 2016 2,500 2017 2,000 2018 5,000 2019 10,000 2020 Cancelled due to COVID 2021 10,000 2022 15,000 2023 25,000 2024 27,000 2025 30,0002026~35,000
GayFest 2004
The GayFest 2004 was, at that time, the first LGBT festival ever organised in Romania, and took place between 3 and 9 May. It was initially titled "The Diversity Festival", and had the theme of "You have the right to be diverse". The festival was mainly centred on public debates concerning attitudes towards LGBT people in Romania, as well as cultural events. Several publications on LGBT issues, such as George Bălan's Homofobia, were officially launched, and Romania's first LGBT film festival was organised, with nine films from nine countries, including a documentary about the 2001 gay pride parade in Belgrade, Serbia, which degenerated into violence. As part of the GayFest, the Goethe Institute in Bucharest hosted a photographic exhibition by Polish artist Karolina Bregula, titled Să ne vadă ("Let them see us") which explored the visibility of gays and lesbians in Poland.
According to Florin Buhuceanu, the executive director of Accept:
The festival was publicly supported by a number of high-profile figures, such as parliamentarian Mădălin Voicu, who stated in the press that, "... we [Romanians] should adapt and realise that no more barriers exist in this domain except those imposed by decency ... Homosexuals exist in all layers of society, starting from poor people to politicians, VIPs, etc."
The 2004 Diversity Festival was initially planned to be organised with the support of the National Council for Combating Discrimination and Bucharest's Sector 3 Council, both of which later pulled out citing financial reasons, and resulting in the event being organised by ACCEPT with the support of several sponsors, including the Romanian Government, the British Council, the Goethe Institute, and the Embassy of Sweden in Bucharest.
A gay pride parade through central Bucharest was also initially planned, but was later abandoned, with various newspapers stating that Romanian society was not ready for such an event on such a scale. Ştefan Iancu, the organiser of the 2004 Diversity Festival, stated to Ziarul, on 3 May 2004, that, "We wanted to do this [a pride parade], but we don't know if we would succeed in convincing gay people to come out into the streets for various reasons. Evidently, they are too afraid of the repercussions (jobs lost, judgement from family, etc.)" Nonetheless, the next year a gay pride parade was organised as part of GayFest 2005 and was both successful and controversial.
GayFest 2005
The 2005 GayFest took place between 23 and 30 May, under the slogan of "You have the right to love". It sparked a significant amount of controversy in Romania, as it included the first gay pride parade in the country. Initially, the application for this parade, which took place on May 29, was rejected by the Bucharest City Hall, on the grounds that the city could not adequately provide security for the participants. Various right-wing groups, such as the nationalist Noua Dreaptă, as well as the Romanian Orthodox Church, also actively opposed the march and called for its ban.
The parade received authorisation, however, after intense lobbying from international gay rights campaigners and the National Council for Combating Discrimination, as well as public support from President Traian Băsescu and Justice Minister Monica Macovei. It proceeded successfully, with about 300 people taking part, though some sources claim that as many as 850 participants were present. A counter-demonstration, which had not received approval from the City Hall, was organised by Noua Dreaptă, the participants of which displayed anti-gay banners and violently aimed to break up the pride parade. Several members of Noua Dreaptă were arrested, and the group was subsequently fined 3,000 lei (approximately US$1,000). At the conclusion of the parade, the executive director of ACCEPT, Florin Buhuceanu, stated that:
Aside from the pride parade, an LGBT film festival was organised during the GayFest week, with 13 films being shown at three venues: the Goethe Institute, La Motoare, and the Elvira Popescu Cinema. Two public debates and seminars were organised at La Scena, on the topics of homosexuality and religion, the mass media, and anti-discrimination laws.
GayFest 2006
The 2006 GayFest took place between 30 May and 4 June, and was organised under the title of "Same rights, same responsibilities". The central theme was that of "Same-sex marriage and civil unions in Romania"; neither is currently recognised in the country. During the GayFest week, Accept called on the state to legalise same-sex marriage, or at least civil unions, creating unprecedented media coverage and debate about this issue.
The GayFest Parade, which received authorisation from the City Hall on 30 May, took place on 3 June, starting at 18:00 and attracting approximately 800 participants, including LGBT rights activists from Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The parade included extravagant costumes, music and balloons, as well as the traditional 200-metre (626-foot) long rainbow flag that is featured at every GayFest parade. The participants also held up signs reading, "We love you!" and "Homophobia, the worst disease", while calling on the parliament to legalise same-sex marriage. Parada comunităţii gay din România s-a încheiat, fiind marcată de incidente (The Romanian gay community's parade has finished marked by incidents), Mediafax, 3 June 2006
Alongside members of the LGBT community, the march was also attended by several supporters of civil rights and human rights, many of them heterosexual. One woman who participated in the parade stated to BBC News that:
Like last year's event, however, the 2006 parade was not without opposition. On 20 May, twenty-two conservative NGOs, including the far right-wing Noua Dreaptă, called on the Romanian Orthodox Church to oppose the pride parade. On 2 June, the Orthodox Church denounced the City Hall for permitting the march to take place, stating that it is "an affront to the morality of public institutions, and a danger ... for the formation of young people". Additionally, Noua Dreaptă filed a legal complaint in a Bucharest court to get the march banned, arguing that it was "obscene and anti-social".Romania: Christian group protests against gay march, Pravda, 1 June 2006 The complaint was not, however, successful, with the court declaring that the GayFest Parade should take place.
At 11:00 on 3 June, a few hours before the GayFest Parade, Noua Dreaptă conducted a counter-demonstration, attended by approximately 150 people, for "family values" and "moral traditions", parading with Christian crosses and Orthodox icons, as well as Romanian flags and posters denouncing homosexuality. Unlike in 2005, however, this march was not scheduled at the same time as the GayFest parade, and hence there were no violent clashes. Despite this, tens of protesters tried to break up the actual gay parade, clashing with the very strong police presence that shielded the LGBT activists. The protesters also held up signs reading "Romania does not need you" and threw eggs at the parade participants as well as the police. 51 anti-gay protesters were arrested and fined by police for provoking violence.
Following the parade, the organisers, ACCEPT, stated that despite the attempts by anti-gay protesters to break up the parade, they were pleased that the authorities had the situation under control, and that the number of participants in the parade was greater than expected. The two parties of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance — the Liberals and the Democrats — issued a statement after the parade condemning the violent anti-gay protests and calling for tolerance. They did not, however, comment on the issue of same-sex unions. The opposition Social Democratic Party also condemned the anti-gay violence.
A few days after the pride parade, the Cotidianul newspaper interviewed Romania's main political parties about their stance on same-sex marriage in Romania, which was the theme of the 2006 GayFest. The two governing parties of the Justice and Truth Alliance affirmed their support for gay rights, but were elusive on the issue of same-sex marriage specifically, while the Social Democrats said that they would not initiate or support a legislative proposal on same-sex marriage, but that a broader public debate on this issue is necessary, "in order to see in what way the standards regarding fundamental liberties can be improved with regard to people with another sexual orientation". The right-wing Conservatives and Greater Romania Party were opposed to same-sex marriage. Familia Florin şi Raul nu primeşte credit cu buletinul, Cotidianul, 6 June 2006
GayFest 2007