gayfest 2005 - the 1st gay festival & parade in romania

>> BACKGROUND INFORMATION

ACCEPT, an NGO from Bucharest which promotes and protects the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual) rights, requested on May 20 the approval to organize the first public demonstration for the diversity of sexual orientation in Romania on May 28. The request was initially rejected by the Commission which approves requests for public gatherings because they claimed it did not specify how many participants would take part in the demonstration, which made it impossible to know how many police should be assigned to guarantee the safety of the participants.

After receiving this rejection, ACCEPT launched a public "invitation for solidarity," planning to continue with the entire program for the duration of the festival, including the parade scheduled for May 28 - even in the event that it would not receive legal approval. The Media Monitoring Agency in Bucharest also supported the "invitation for solidarity" launched by ACCEPT. ACCEPT sent a second request to the Commission on May 25, which finally approved the public march.

The weeklong festival proposed to create visibility for the LGBT community in Romania, to make gay culture known to a wider public and to disseminate the spirit of accepting diversity. It included daily film projections at diverse locations in Bucharest - the Goethe Institute, La Motoare (the Motors), and the Elvira Popescu Hall, and a concert by Hell's Kitchen. There were also two debates on the themes "Religion and Sexuality," and "Mass-media and anti-discrimination legislation" - hosted at "La Scena."

>> 2G.RO - "after the parade," a report from gay online portal - 30.05.05

For the organizers the action was considered a success, especially since they expected the protests against the parade to be much more violent. "The simple fact that the first gay festival took place in Romania counts very much for us. The march went really well. I am very pleased with GayFest 2005. I expected violent protests, but with the exception of those from "Noua Dreapta" [the "New Right" - a neo-fascist group that militates against gays and ethnic minorities], who were trying to provoke outbursts of physical violence, everything was OK. The police was however somewhat agressive and fickle," declared Florin Bucuceanu, the director of ACCEPT. He promised that next year there would be a much more colorful and spectacular parade with musical events.

Approximately 20 people protested against the parade with their own counter-banners and by shouting hateful slogans, and another group of about 30 people, who were holding banners with the symbols of the Noua Dreapta movement, physically attacked some of the participants. One of the protestors who was shouting "No to homosexuality" threw a lit torch into the column of the parade. The police identified the person who threw the torch and then tried to run for cover, as Nicolae C. (28 years old), and sanctioned him with breaking Law 60/1991 pertaining to public manifestations. The leader of the Noua Dreapta group, Tudor Ionescu, was also sanctioned by the police, receiving a 30 million lei ($1000) fine for "initiating an unauthorized manifestation" during the authorized march of the sexual minorities.

>> IOANA CONTU - "those are all fags?! dude, there's so many of them!" - 04.06.05

There was something in the air already from the break of day ... enthusiasm, anticipation, agitation, a little fear, some assumptions, questions, expectations, tensions ... a little more fear ... No one really realized if they were prepared for it, neither us (the participants) nor them (the spectators).

The eyes of passersby were a little more attentive, it seemed. More and more attentive the closer you got to Unirea Square, and as soon as a crowd of people gathered around a car covered in a rainbow flag became visible in the distance, you could hear the comments from some people: "Those are all fags?! Dude, there's so many of them." It is true, there were many of us there, and we were of all kinds: gay or not, smiling or not, Romanian speakers or not, extravagant or not, some wearing t-shirts with "no one knows I'm gay," others with whistles, rainbow flags and stickers with "GayFest 2005," some with families, children, dogs, others alone, some afraid ... we were all there and we could each say "These people are gay and I am with them!" - and this made us all feel free.

The column of demonstrators was moving, people from the margins joined us and that was it, "It was happening!" According to estimates there were around 300 people ... it seemd hard to count, but even we were amazed by how many we were. And in fact what were we doing? Walking ... walking for the first time in Romana wearing the word "gay" on our bodies, and we knew that whoever would see us there would know something about us which maybe they would only have guessed but not dared to ask or which they might have tried to pretend that they don't notice. Here we were no longer hiding, neither us, nor them: we were there for the purpose of showing them that we exist, showing that being gay is not "an isolated phenomenon," making it impossible for them to continue to ignore us, for visibility, for liberty, for love, for being near those who are dear to us ... for, for, for ... we each know better than anyone else why we were there ...

And they? The onlookers? Why were they there? Some out of curiosity, some by chance, some for reasons they themselves weren't sure of ... Others, because they felt threatened by us, maybe they hated us since we are not like them, maybe they just saw us as a pretext for violence. It was interesting to observe the contrast between those of us who were part of the parade and those on the margins who tried to grab attention with all kinds of protests, some more violent than others ... the contrast between our faces which were marked by smiles, good disposition, enthusiasm, and calm, and the clenched-jawed severity, threat, frustration, and even hate in the eyes of the protestors.

Once we reached the Tineretului neighborhood, the march stopped, applause followed, with whistles and cheers of joy, after which we heard the voice of a policeman: "The manifestation is finished, we thank you for your participation." And that was all. We could each go back to our homes.

Still, for many of them there were questions that remained unanswered ... they still did not understand "why?" The media did not seem to understand much either ... even though the media was in the best position to explain a few things to the protestors. The overwhelming numbers of members of the press who photographed us relentlessly, as if we were on some red carpet, were driven by a blind desire for the sensational and did not really comprehend anything about the atmosphere or the motives of the parade, and I don't think they were very interested in understanding "why?" Maybe it was because they were too preoccupied with documenting the conflict which they anticipated, and which probably left them disappointed because the magnitude was less than what they expected. The articles in the press all highlighted, with some focusing exclusively on, the "conflict between the homosexuals and 'Noua Dreapta' [the 'New Right' - a neo-fascist organization which militates for the recriminalization of homosexuals]." Other articles continued to be baffled by the reasons "why" - and not because they didn't understand the actual motives of the parade but because they were disgusted by the fact that we dared to bring our homosexuality out of the "bedroom" and "parade it in front of their windows."

And, in fact, that is exactly what we did ... we walked out into the center of public space, we made our homosexuality visible, we made a public manifestation of our "right to love" ... WE WERE THERE BECAUSE WE WERE NO LONGER ASHAMED OR AFRAID TO SAY THAT WE ARE GAY ... and that made us feel more free, more sure of ourselves, more happy, more loved, and better people.

No one can take that back from us.

"They call it climbing and we call it visibility,
They call it coolness and we call it visibility,
They call it way too rowdy we call it finally free."
(Le Tigre - Viz)

>> MIRUNA AND ELENA - "a belated report on gaypride" - 10.06.05

We started with uncertain steps toward Manuc Inn, where we knew the participants of the Gay Pride march would be meeting, but when we got there we saw that everyone was already walking towards the fountains at Unirii Square. We briefly stopped on our way there to film the faces of people who were going to the march ...

Traffic had been stopped around the fountains and many people were sitting on the edge of the fountains, surrounded by military police. Our first impression was: this is like some kind of animal pen. We got ourselves oriented a little and tried to reach the fountains, but a policeman stopped us and asked us if we were "with the press" or if we were "helping with the organizing." We answered that we weren't and he wouldn't let us pass. But two steps away from him, someone was distributing stickers with Gay Fest 2005, saying that whoever wanted to have access to the marching column would only need to wear a sticker. Just as we were sneaking into the column, the starting signal was given. A few guys lifted a banner which said "No prejudice! I love who I want!" and they started walking. Other banners read: NO TO DISCRIMINATION!, OUT AND PROUD

Almost immediately after the march was set into motion, you could hear boos and whistles. We left the marching column to try to film those who were yelling, and kept to the sidewalk for a while. The parallel "march" on the sidewalk was made up at first sight of the following kinds of people: first of all idlers, curious and stupefied; then angry senior citizens who were shouting at the top of their lungs; some middle aged women who looked extremely idignant; and the instigators who were fanatically voicing their messages: "Stinkbags", "Shits", "Fags", "Shame!", "Dregs of Society." About halfway through the march route we encountered a group who were standing there holding a banner that said "No to homosexuality. The Sfintu Sava Church from Buzau," some signs with the celtic cross symbol, the Mary Mother of Jesus icon and the tricolor flag. They were repeatedly chanting "Shame, shame, shame on you" and they even sang the "Prohod" [part of the religious service at christian orthodox funerals]!

Anyway, we moved on and got back into the column, where the atmosphere was as cheerful as could be, though somewhat strained. The participants were sharing stories, chatting, whistling, marching in step, smiling, cheering, talking back to the bystanders ("No, shame on YOU"). Here we ran into a good number of acquaintances, even a couple who were there with their four-month old baby in a stroller. We realized then that a large number of the participants were there simply to show their solidarity, to support the idea of tolerance and the free expression of sexuality. We must admit this simple fact made us a little more relaxed.

In the meantime, from the sidewalk there were a few stones thrown our way and also a smoke bomb which exploded right next to us. The boos continued, but so did the cheers from the column. There were a few hostile attempts to infiltrate the column, and a few arrests followed.

Before we knew it, just as the atmosphere had gotten warmed up, the march was over as we reached the Tineretului intersection. From the sidewalks we received both whistles and applause! You could see the disorientation of the participants, for whom it was obvious that the march had ended much too soon. We kept filming until a policeman yelled to stop, angry because he thought we had focused in on him. He threatened to confiscate the camera, so we took off in a hurry, along some small side streets, where, surprise! We were approached by a group of locals gathered around a grocery store, who asked: "Are you lesbians?" We answered defensively: "No, do we look as if we are?" We told them that we were impartial "journalists" and asked them what they thought of the march. Their opinion ... you don't want to know! ...

PS: if you really do want to know what they said, you can write us at:

skatalitee@yahoo.com ( miruna, featuring video cam )

be_the_media@yahoo.com ( elena, featuring backup )

- translations by joanne & ruxi