A new page in the history of the romanian LGBTQ+ community was writen today, the 1st of July 2017, as we walked our very first march as a beautiful ending to the Cluj Pride festival. The festival, which consisted in LGBTQ+ movie screenings, workshops and more, took place in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania between the 28th of June and the 1st of July and gave the community a chance to come together and remain strong in facing Romania’s current political context.

An upcoming referendum will be held in an effort to explicitely redefine marriage as the „exclusive union between a man and a woman” in the Constitution, and by doing so, openly oppressing and denying the basic rights of LGBTQ+ citizens. This referendum was proposed by (roughly translated) The Coalition for the Family, a civic initative that, despite denying any religious or political affiliation, is comprised of aproximately 30 NGOs whose stances range from pro-life, conversion therapy, obligatory religion courses in schools and so on.

It took 15 days and 22 requests for City Hall to approve the march, giving us a tiny, secluded street which we crossed back and forth, all the while a „normality” march organized on the same date in a very central location as a response from the Far Right movement was approved immediately following one single request.

However, all of this didn’t stop the aproximately 800 people in attendance to participate and stand united, spreading a message of love, solidarity and tolerance and setting an important precedent for years to come. I am glad that I got to be a part of it and I even had the opportunity to photograph the change that every city deserves!

More info: clujpride.ro

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