Romania

In 2000, Romania issued Government Ordinance (GO) no. 137/2000 on “the prevention and sanctioning of all forms of discrimination” on grounds including “sex”, “sexual orientation,” and “membership of a disadvantaged group.” However, since then, institutional efforts to advance LGBTIQ equality have been limited. The government does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions, with the Romanian Orthodox Church emerging in 2017 as a key opponent to a civil partnerships bill. In 2018, Romania held a referendum to ban same-sex unions in the constitution, which failed due to low turnout. In May 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the domestic laws of Romania that prohibited same-sex unions were in violation of the right to “privacy and family life” under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but the government has defied the ruling.

Although transgender people can change their legal gender markers, this process is fairly inaccessible, not uniform, and requires surgical intervention. In 2021, the requirement for transgender people to undergo surgery before they could attain legal gender recognition was recognized by the European Court of Human Rights as an “impossible dilemma,” ruling that it violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2024, the European Court of Justice ruled that Romania must recognize a citizen’s change of first name and gender marker made legally in another EU country.

*Outright research indicates that the bodily autonomy of intersex people is not respected and protected in this country.