Controversies over law banning any reference to gender identity in schools and universities. President, unlikely to promulgate it

Universities and representatives of students and pupils asked President Iohannis not to promulgate the Education Law with an amendment recently adopted by the Senate which bans any reference to gender identity in schools and universities.

The law says that the gender identity is “understood as the theory or opinion that gender is a different concept from the sexual anatomy and that the two are not always the same”.

Political sources told Digi24 that the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will not promulgate the law, as he is opposing its provisions as well.

Babes-Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca has also reacted against the amended law, voicing its opposition against “any type of political or ideological intrusion over science or the academic environment”.

“The major issue is that an academic theory can be forbidden by law! (…) UBB is one of the most important academic communities in Romania, with almost 50,000 members, united through common values and respecting our difference where they exist.

Apart from the variety of ideological options, our stance is that the major issue in this case is that, through vague wording of the law, an academic theory can be banned by law, not to mention that it is questioning some already existing university specializations, programmes, researches or classes.

But an academic theory is tested academically and it survives or disappears following tests conducted under ethical circumstances, and not otherwise! We are confident that, in this case, we are talking about a loophole that will be amended”, says UBB.

The University of Bucharest has also had a tough stance against the Education law’s amendment referring to the gender identity, saying that this amendment “is going against some fundamental laws guaranteed by the Romanian Constitution and by the international conventions, that it has no scientific ground and represents a blatant example of interference in education and freedom of speech.”

The National Alliance of the Student Organizations in Romania and the National Council of Pupils have also condemned the gender identity amendment, arguing that the Parliament “has legislated an abuse against people whose gender is not compliant with the sexual anatomy, has limited their right to education and has instigated to hatred against these people, sending the education in Romania to Middle Ages”.