Timișoara Pride Week

Timișoara Pride Week
NicknamePride TM
StatusActive
GenreLGBT pride festival
Date(s)June/July
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s)Timișoara, Romania
Years active2019–present
Participants1,500 (2024)
Activity
Organized by
  • Identity.Education
  • eQuiVox

Timișoara Pride Week, also known as Pride TM, is a festival dedicated to the LGBT community that takes place annually in Timișoara, Romania, since 2019. Chronologically, it is the third festival of its kind in Romania after those in Bucharest (2004) and Cluj-Napoca (2017). The first edition took place between 3 and 7 June 2019 and was organized by two local LGBT NGOs, Identity.Education and eQuiVox. It was funded by MozaiQ [ro] through the Community Fund and individual donations.

History

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Background

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The LGBT rights movement in Romania began to gain ground in the mid-1990s, after homosexual relations between two consenting adults were decriminalized in 1996.[1] Later, in 2001, Article 200, which punished homosexual relations with imprisonment, was repealed entirely.[1] In 2000, the Isărescu Government introduced an anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation in the areas of goods and services, healthcare, education, employment and housing, and in 2006 hate crimes and incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation were outlawed.[2] All this allowed greater social visibility of LGBT people and their culture and created the premises for organizing and LGBT festival; the first edition of Bucharest Pride (then known as GayFest) took place in 2004, while the first pride parade unfolded in 2005.[3]

Up until 2017, Bucharest Pride was the only event of its kind in Romania. Over the years, LGBT-related events also sprung up in regional cities. As of 2024, pride parades take place in Bucharest (by far the largest), Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Timișoara. The appearance of other events outside the capital, including Timișoara, was mainly catalyzed by the constitutional referendum of 2018, which sought to ban same-sex marriage.

2019: first edition

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The first edition of the festival was organized between 3 and 7 June 2019. The events included, among others, a vernissage, an info bio show at the German State Theatre, a conference on LGBT rights hosted by the West University, a picnic in Queen Marie Park and parties in local venues.[4][5] The 2019 edition had as partners the Timișoara – European Capital of Culture Association, the Student Organization of the West University of Timișoara, the Timiș County Youth Foundation, as well as the West University of Timișoara.[6]

2022: first pride parade

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The first pride parade took place during the fourth edition of the festival, held between 25 June and 3 July 2022. The march was attended by around 800 people, among them the vice-mayor Ruben Lațcău from the Save Romania Union (USR), representatives of the embassies of United Kingdom and United States, as well as parliamentarians from Norway.[7] The parade unfolded between C. D. Loga Park and Queen Marie Park and was overseen by important police forces and gendarmes to prevent any incidents.[8]

Unlike the first pride parade in Cluj-Napoca, whose registration applications were delayed 22 times and which was diverted from a more central route,[9] the Pride TM parade did not meet the opposition of the local authorities.

Editions

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External images
image icon Pride TM 2022 at Inquam Photos
image icon Pride TM 2023 at TION
image icon Pride TM 2024 at Inquam Photos
Edn. Date Attendance
1st 3–7 June 2019 No pride parade
2nd 19 December 2020 Online event[a]
3rd 6–14 August 2021 No pride parade
4th 25 June–3 July 2022 800[10]
5th 24 June–1 July 2023 1,200[11]
6th 1–6 July 2024 1,500[12]

Reactions

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At first, the organization of the festival met the opposition of conservative far-right groups and local religious groups. For instance, Ionel Tuțac, president of the Community of Christian Baptist Churches in Timișoara, contested the manifestation and declared himself "dismayed" by the involvement of public institutions of culture and university education in hosting some events within the festival.[13] A similar position was held by the county councilor Mihăiță Bojin from the National Liberal Party (PNL), preacher at the Emanuel Baptist Church in Timișoara.[14] Other local councilors from PNL criticized the financial support offered by Timișoara City Hall for the Pride TM events.[15] Also, small groups of priests attended some of the events as a sign of protest,[16] while some of the exhibitions were vandalized.[14] The organizers were also subjected to online bullying.[17]

However, over the years, public opinion on the subject softened, and the pride parades did not met significant opposition, such as organized counter-protests.

Local political figures refrained from showing their solidarity with Pride TM for fear of a backlash from the conservative electorate. Among the few who showed their support were vice-mayor Ruben Lațcău and senator Raoul Trifan [ro], both from USR.[18]

Organizers

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eQuiVox

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An informal group without legal personality, eQuiVox was born in the fall of 2018, as a reaction to the activity and homophobic discourse of the Coalition for Family.[19] The coalition's activity materialized in a national referendum to redefine the notion of spouses (currently gender-neutral) in the Romanian Constitution, held between 6 and 7 October 2018. The referendum was boycotted by almost 80% of the voters, which prompted eQuiVox to take the first steps towards organizing the first LGBT pride festival in Timișoara and western Romania.[19] Eventually, the first edition of Pride TM took place in the first week of Pride Month 2019, but it did not include a pride parade like the festivals in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca.

Identity.Education

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The Palace of Culture illuminated with the projection of rainbow and transgender flags during the screening of the documentary Freedom? (2023)

Identity.Education (stylized as +iE) also appeared in the run-up of the October 2018 family referendum. The first event co-organized by Identity.Education took place during the Human Rights Day celebrations, in December 2018.[20] Subsequently, in January 2019, it organized the first own cultural and artistic event, Q Talks.[20] In October of the same year, it organized the first edition of the LGBT History Month in Timișoara, observed in Romania since 2012. Also in October 2019, it received the official organizing documents from Romanian authorities.[20] The +iE Center was inaugurated in December 2021 and serves as a space for community events and exhibitions, as well as the office of the NGO.[20] +iE was a partner of Timișoara 2023 in developing projects for the route "Fluid perspectives – Overcoming old mentalities through the power of culture" as part of Timișoara's application file for the title of European Capital of Culture.[21]

+iE is the oldest of the two LGBT rights organizations in Timișoara, the only ones currently active. The first such organization was called LGBTeam and was founded in 2006.[9]

Notes

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  1. ^ Organized jointly with Bucharest Pride and Cluj Pride under the name Winter Pride

References

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  1. ^ a b Stan, Lavinia; Turcescu, Lucian (2007). "Religion, Politics, and Sexuality". Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 171–198. ISBN 978-0-19-530853-2. LCCN 2006037206.
  2. ^ "LGBTI Rights in Romania". ILGA World Database.
  3. ^ Woodcock, Shannon (2011). "A Short History of the Queer Time of 'Post-Socialist' Romania, or Are We There Yet? Let's Ask Madonna!". In Mizielińska, Joanna; Kulpa, Robert (eds.). De-Centring Western Sexualities: Central and Eastern European Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 63–84. ISBN 9781138246904.
  4. ^ Both, Ștefan (30 May 2019). "Pride TM - primul festival dedicat minorităților sexuale în Timișoara". Adevărul.
  5. ^ Lugojan, Oana-Karina (6 June 2019). "Comunitatea LGBTQ este "loud and proud" săptămâna aceasta! Are loc prima manifestare PRIDE la Timișoara, care celebrează identitatea și diversitatea!". Express de Banat.
  6. ^ "Picnic PRIDE, în parc, la Timișoara, cu reprezentanți ai comunității LGBTQ+". TION. 4 June 2019.
  7. ^ Both, Ștefan (2 July 2022). "Prima paradă "Pride" din Timișoara. Sute de tineri au colorat străzile orașului și au strigat: "Iubire, iubire"". Adevărul.
  8. ^ Hoster, Marcel (2 July 2022). "Străzile centrale ale Timișoarei s-au "colorat". Sute de tineri, la Marșul Pride TM". deBanat.ro.
  9. ^ a b Dima, Ramona (2019). "Trends of Homophobic Activism in Romania, or 'How to Turn Religious Convictions into a Referendum and Still Fail'". In Buyantueva, Radzhana; Shevtsova, Maryna (eds.). LGBTQ+ Activism in Central and Eastern Europe: Resistance, Representation and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 191. ISBN 978-3-030-20401-3.
  10. ^ Dobrescu, Petre (2 July 2022). "Sute de participanți la primul marș Pride din Timișoara. "Trăim într-o țară din UE care nu oferă nici o formă de recunoaștere cuplurilor de același gen"". Libertatea.
  11. ^ "Am fost peste 1200, cu 500 mai multx decât anul trecut. Mulțumim 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈". Identity.Education. 2 July 2023.
  12. ^ Both, Ștefan (6 July 2024). "Marșul Pride TM la ediția a treia: Aproximativ 1.500 de persoane au sărbătorit diversitatea la Timișoara / Tinerii au colorat străzile orașului: "Strada este și a noastră"". G4 Media.
  13. ^ Ardelean, Ramona (1 June 2019). "Manifestarea Pride Week, contestată de comunitatea baptistă". Observator de Timiș.
  14. ^ a b Tollea, Vlad Marko (14 June 2019). "Conflictele din prima săptămână LGBT care a avut loc vreodată în Timișoara". VICE România.
  15. ^ "Festivalul LGBTI+, sprijinit prin programul cultural al Primăriei Timișoara, este criticat de voci din PNL: "Cât o să-i mai tolerăm?"". spotmedia.ro. 6 August 2021.
  16. ^ Tacu, Irina (11 June 2019). "PRIDE și curaj în Timișoara". Decât o Revistă.
  17. ^ "Pride TM 2019 & 2020". Identity.Education.
  18. ^ Ardelean, Ino (3 July 2022). "Marșul LGBT din Timișoara, intoleranța din "orașul toleranței". Tăcerea politicienilor". deBanat.ro.
  19. ^ a b "eQuiVox – Timișoara". MozaiQ. 9 February 2021.
  20. ^ a b c d "Raport activitate 2018–2021" (PDF). Identity.Education.
  21. ^ "Programul Cultural reactualizat" (PDF). Centrul de Proiecte Timișoara. p. 27.
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