Romanian Politicians Argue Putting Marriage Equality Up for Vote

By: Andy Powell, Staff Writer

ROMANIA — Leading politicians of Romania’s majority party on Friday asked two colleagues to withdraw legislation aimed at a referendum on amending the country’s constitution to ban Gay marriage-to be held on the same day as parliamentary elections.

Two senators of the Social Democratic Party had submitted a draft bill on Thursday which called for a referendum on changing the constitution to state in no uncertain terms that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and that gay marriage should be banned permanently.

The bill is backed by a petition signed by nearly 3 million citizens. This reporter would love to know where those signatures came from. Have they been verified? Are they filled with thousands of dead citizens kind of the way DADT was argued with petitions presented by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), when he waved around a petition stating he has thousands of signatures stating that they are against repealing DADT. Only to find out that the majority on that list were dead people.

The Romanian constitution currently defines marriage as a union between two people, with no reference to gender which is the way it should be however, Liviu Dragnea, chairman of the Social Democrats, said, the issue should not be mixed in with the parliamentary election.

Technically, same-sex marriage is not legal in Romania which means that unions of same-sex couples married abroad are not recognized in their homeland. In fact two men, one American and one Romanian, want their 2010 marriage in Belgium legally recognized. Romania’s Constitutional Court is considering their petition.

To show you how Same-sex marriage is a delicate task to tackle in Romania, the Constitutional Court has postponed making a ruling on their petition three times so far. The next hearing for the married couple is set for Nov. 29. Hopefully they will finally have the recognition that they rightfully deserve.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters Archives)
(Photo courtesy of Gay Star News)