Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 16:35:34 +0200 (MSZ)
From: Bj|rn Skolander <Bjorn.Skolander@nordiska.uu.se>


**GAY RIGHTS ADVANCE IN ROMANIA**
  Romania has eased a communist-era ban on homosexuality.  The
  lower house of parliament has voted to make gay sex a crime
  only if it creates a public scandal.  Under the changes
  legislators approved to the penal code homosexuality would be
  punished by up to five years in jail if it caused a "public
  scandal" and up to seven years if it involved under-age
  Romanians.  The changes, which parliament's upper Senate
  passed last year, still have to be signed by President Ion
  Iliescu.  Romania's treatment of homosexuals has brought
  protests from human rights groups.  A recent survey by Amnesty
  International said 11 Romanians are now imprisoned under
  Romania's old penal code, which made homosexuality a crime.
  Critics say the new rules are still ambiguous, with
  homosexuals facing long jail sentences if witnesses declare
  they are offended by their public gestures.