Subject: Romania relaxes anti-gay legal stance
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 1994 15:50:09 EST
From: Ron Buckmire <buckmr@rpi.edu>


Anyone have any hidden insight on what's going on in Romania?

02/03 1055 ROMANIAN SENATE AMENDS HOMOSEXUAL BAN
    BUCHAREST, Feb 3 (Reuter) - Romania's senate on Thursday adopted
amendments to a law that makes gay sex a crime, a significant step towards
legalising homosexuality in line with European human rights standards.
     The decriminalisation of gay sex was among last year's demands of the
Council of Europe forum of parliamentary democracies as a condition for
Romania's admission to the group.
     Under the amendment, gay sex will still be punished with jail terms
of up to five years but only if it causes a "public scandal," involves a
minor, a defenceless person, or if it is by coercion or rape.
     Homosexual propaganda and proselytism remain banned.
     The amendments must be adopted by the lower house, the Chamber of
Deputies, and signed by President Ion Iliescu before becoming law.
     Romania's anti-homosexual law is one of several human rights issues
still of concern to human rights groups despite the 1989 collapse of
communist rule.
     According to a recent survey by the London-based human rights group
Amnesty International, 57 Romanians were serving terms in the countries
jails last year for homosexual offences.
     Amnesty has adopted several jailed Romanian homosexuals as "prisoners
of conscience" and demanded their release, arguing that international law
should have precedence over Romanian law.
     It recently wrote to Iliescu lobbying for a change in the law and the
release of imprisoned gays.
     On Wednesday the conservative-dominated senate passed an amendment to
the criminal code affecting defamation. The original draft amendment had
targeted journalists and sparked protests from human rights groups in
Romania and abroad.
     Reference to journalists was finally dropped from the amendment,
making all citizens equally liable and punishable for defamatory
statements made in the media.  3-FEB-1994 12:17 GEORGE BUSH WITHDRAWS FROM
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