Scandal between PMB and Bucharest Pride organizers. “They want to silence us, they want us to be invisible”

Protest in front of the Capital City Hall. Several associations representing the LGBT community reproach the mayor general for not receiving the right to organize a march on August 14 through the center of the capital, on Calea Victoriei.

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However, the representatives of the mayor’s office say that they allowed the demonstration, but in other areas than the ones they wanted.

One of the variants proposed by the municipality was Kiseleff Boulevard, on a single lane.

In addition, the representatives of the general mayor’s office claim that the restrictions related to the pandemic do not allow the organization of rallies with more than 500 people, while the community LGBT 10,000 people were expected to attend the rally.

The summary of the dispute between the two parties (PMB and the organizers of the Pride Bucharest march), as it appears from the communiqués sent by its representatives, is the following:

ACCEPT: PMB sends a homophobic message

“The message sent by PMB by not allowing LGBT people, their families, their friends to show their support for equal rights is discriminatory, it is a homophobic message, it is a message that sends us out of Bucharest, out of the city where and we have the right. (…) We will go on Calea Victoriei, as we proposed. On Saturday, August 14, at 17.00, we will gather in Victoriei Square and we will go a pedestrian march between 18.00 and 19.00, to the esplanade with statues at the University “, said Teodora Ion-Rotaru, direct executive of ACCEPT, during a press conference, according to Agerpres.

In turn, Luca Istodor, co-organizer of Bucharest Pride, accuses PMB of approving a “counter-march” of the New Right association.

“The authorities authorized the New Right march before authorizing ours and the authorities are ready to support a fascist march, they are complicit with it, but they keep us for a whole day at the City Hall and, in the end, they refuse us permission to “They want to silence us, they want to reduce to invisibility the trans people, the Roma people, the sex workers, the people with disabilities, they want us to be as humble as possible, to stay as hidden and invisible as possible.” claimed Istodor.

PMB: The law is clear. We cannot approve an assembly of 10,000 people

The official position of the Bucharest City Hall is that a public assembly must respect a maximum number of 500 participants and that it cannot ensure the safe Pride march on the route required by ACCEPT, which is why it presented alternative associations.

“Both requests for rally of the ACCEPT Association provide a number of 10,000 participants. At the time of the first request, July 1, 2021, the maximum number of people provided by legal norms, generated by health restrictions, was 100. This is why the discussion of the request was postponed. , waiting for the relaxation of the security measures announced by the Government. At this moment, the maximum number of persons provided by the legal norms is 500 “, the PMB representatives specified in a press release.

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