Romanians Start Rival Campaigns for Referendum on Family

Rival activists are busy campaigning for an October referendum on outlawing same-sex marriage which, if it succeeds, will change the constitution to fit the socially conservative definition of the family.

The cabinet was due to convene on Tuesday to adopt a decree on organising a two-day vote, which is an unprecedented move for Romania, where polls normally take only one day.

Equal rights organizations have called on Romanians to boycott the referendum scheduled for October 7, so that the result is declared invalid for lack of a quorum.

After the Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the bill to modify the constitution, which passed parliament last week, was constitutional, no legal obstacles remain to stop the referendum.

The referendum came about after a socially conservative NGO, Coalition for the Family, an umbrella group of Christian NGOs and traditionalist groups, raised 3 million signatures in 2015 in support of a bill to redefine the family as a "union between a man and a woman" and not "between spouses", as the constitution currently states.

Parliament's upper chamber passed the bill on September 11, when the vast majority of the senators, 107, supported the bill, and only 13 voted against it. The bill passed the lower chamber in mid-2017.

Both the Coalition for the Family and their opponents among the rights activists have already started campaigning on social media, although the President has not yet promulgated the law.

A social media advert posted by the Coalition for the Family on Monday said: "Three million people already signed for the consented union between a man and a woman. On October 7 you'll get the chance to vote in this democratic process. DO NOT be indifferent, vote!".

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