The Diversity Parade 2016 was organized in Bucharest on Saturday getting together over 2,500 participants, members of the LGBT community, officials and also supporters who militated against discrimination and intolerance and for equal rights.
The parade organized by Accept, MozaiQ and PSI-Romania organizations started around 15:30 at the Arch of Triumph in the Capital, as part of the Bucharest Pride 2016, the festival of the LGBT people in Romania. The festival kicked off on June 20 and continued until June 25, rejoining exhibitions, film screenings, debates and the Diversity Parade.
“The diversity parade is a street protest of the LGBT community and is also a protest of our allies. We take to the street, make ourselves visible, claiming the public space for the public space also belongs to us, the LGBT citizens (…),” said the MosaiQ president, Vlad Levente Viski.
The organizers and participants unfolded a huge flag in the LGBT colors in front of the Arch of Triumph.
The parade was also attended by foreigners, German, English and Dutch people came to support the meeting in Romania.
Among the high ranking officials who also came to endorse the parade was Michael Roth, the German State Minister for European Affairs, Carla Delgado, the first transgender person elected as MP in Spain, the UK Ambassador in Bucharest, Paul Brummell, Dean Thompson, deputy chief of mission of the US Embassy to Romania, as well as the minister for Social Dialogue, Violeta Alexandru.
MP Remus Cernea also attended the march as a supporter of the LGBT community’s rights, but also in support of the women’s rights, who, in his view, should be better represented in society. “In Romania’s Parliament there are 10% women, unlike other democratic states where there are minimum 30% women in Parliament,” Cernea said.
However, the protest didn’t lack incidents. Several passers by voiced offenses against the participants, with the gendarmes identifying a passer by who chanted homophobe slogans.
The Romanian gendarmes came with bandogs to prevent potential scandals.
In retort to the LGBT parade, a March for Normality was held earlier on Saturday. Organized by the New Right association, the anti-LGBT parade was held around 12:00 in Bucharest from Victoriei Square to the Patriarchy Hill. Participants voiced support for the values of the traditional family while insisting on the idea of the marriage between men and women.
The New Right militants asked Bucharesters to join their march that promote the traditional family, but also to be solidary with a Romanian family in UK, whose children have been given to adoption to a gay couple. “By attending this march you’ll actively get involved in asserting the traditional and Christian values of our people,” was the parade’s slogan.