LGBT rights in Romania
| LGBT rights in Romania | |
|---|---|
Location of Romania (dark green)
– in Europe (light green & dark grey) |
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? | Legal since 1996, age of consent equalized in 2002 |
| Gender identity/expression | Change of legal sex allowed since 1996, following sex reassignment surgery |
| Military service | Gays and lesbians allowed to serve |
| Discrimination protections | Sexual orientation protections since 2000 (see below) |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships |
No recognition of same-sex relationships |
| Adoption | – |
– in Europe (light green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (light green) – [Legend]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Romania may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Romania is generally socially conservative with regard to the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens. Nevertheless, the country has made significant progress in LGBT rights legislation since 2000. In the past two decades, it fully decriminalised homosexuality, introduced and enforced wide-ranging anti-discrimination laws, equalised the age of consent and introduced laws against homophobic hate crimes. Furthermore, LGBT communities have become more visible in recent years, as a result of events such as Bucharest's annual pride parade and Cluj-Napoca's Gay Film Nights festival. In 2006, Romania was named by Human Rights Watch as one of five countries in the world that had made "exemplary progress in combating rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity."
The Penal Code promulgated by Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1864, inspired mainly by the French Penal Code of 1810 (which, over time, had eliminated the penal discrimination of homosexuality), did not treat homosexual relations differently from heterosexual ones, and thus, homosexuality was only illegal if it was done on an unconsensual basis. Starting with 1878, the corresponding Transylvanian-Hungarian code penalized gay men only if they engaged in violent homosexual acts, such as rape or attempted rape. Likewise, Bukovina punished homosexual rape through old Austrian Article 129.
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Wikipedia