Joe.My.God. LGBT News
On Friday the Romanian Parliament resoundingly defeated a civil unions bill put forward by Green Party president and 2009 presidential candidate Remus Cernea [INSET]. In 2013 Cernea introduced a similar bill, spurring a denouncement by the Orthodox Archbishop of Tomis, who said that Cernea is controlled by Satan. Cernea’s latest attempt failed after an MP suggested that civil unions would lead to humans marrying dolphins. Seriously. Cernea is the founder of a Romanian humanist group called Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience. He has called for a strict separation of church and state and for taxing churches. (Tipped by JMG reader Luis)
RELATED: The European Union currently has 28 members. Same-sex marriage is legal in twelve of them: Belgium, Denmark, Finland (effective 2017), France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia (effective date pending), Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland.) Civil unions are legal in eight EU nations: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus (effective date pending), the Czech Republic, Estonia (effective 2016), Germany, Hungary, and Malta. No partnership recognitions exist in eight EU nations: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Non-EU members Norway and Iceland legalized same-sex marriage in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Non-EU member Switzerland legalized registered partnerships in 2007.