The Latest on LGBT pride events in Europe (all times local):
4:45 P.M.
People in Romania’s capital are gearing up for a gay pride parade that will feature calls for same-sex couples to receive more rights and acceptance.
Before the parade taking place in Bucharest on Saturday, choreographer Emil Rengle wanted fellow Romanians who oppose same-sex relationships to know, “We love differently because God created us differently.”
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled Tuesday that two men — one Romanian, the other American — are entitled to the same residency rights as other married couples in the European Union.
However, the ruling doesn’t oblige EU member countries to legalize same-sex marriages.
Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia don’t legally recognize same-sex couples.
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3:30 p.m.
Romanians who consider homosexuality to be a threat to society have rallied in the European country’s capital on the same day a gay pride parade is scheduled to take place.
New Right movement leader Tudor Ionescu said the gay pride parade set to take place in Bucharest on Saturday was “a disgrace, a slap on the cheek of a Christian capital.”
People taking part in the parade will demand more rights for same-sex couples.
Participants in the opposition rally called for a referendum to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Romania’s marriage law currently defines marriage as a union of spouses, which gay rights opponents say could open the door to same-sex marriages.
Orthodox Christian monk Ciprian Timofte said homosexual activity, which was decriminalized in 2002, should be outlawed again in Romania.
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9:35 p.m.
Members of Poland’s LBGT community celebrated a rainbow made of water and light in a downtown Warsaw square overnight as they geared up for the country’s largest pride parade.
Light projected onto water created a “water hologram” rainbow for four hours starting late Friday, getting people in the spirit for the yearly “Equality Parade” in the Polish capital Saturday afternoon.
The pride celebrations come as LGBT activists say a conservative turn in Poland is only motivating them to fight harder for their rights, even though their hopes of seeing same-sex marriage legalized has no chance now in the country.
A record number of gay pride marches — 12 — are taking place across Poland this season, including five in cities having them for the first time, some of them considered conservative strongholds.
by The Associated Press Warsaw, Poland
Source – ABC News
