Two gay teens were fined and assaulted by police on 27 July at around 11:30 in the morning after cuddling, holding hands and kissing in a public park. According to their report, the two were subject to humiliation and physical assault by the officers and park guardians, who had approached them on the pretext of checking their identification cards. After beating up the two, one of the officers allegedly said that, "I should tie you up with chains and f*** you until you are cured of your sickness". The two teens were each fined each fined 500 lei (approximately €140) for "disturbing the public peace", the other alternative being a criminal record for the same offence. They consider this to be an act of discrimination against sexual orientation, considering that a heterosexual couple were not prosecuted for engaging in similar acts a few metres away. One of the teens stated that:

"I will never forget the hypocrisy with which they said they only wanted to see our id’s, that they were only doing their job, when at 10 metres distance, a girl and a boy were having sex in the bushes."

Additionally, the police offers threatened the teens that they would beat them again, with "no witnesses", when they were not on duty.

Homosexuality, including public manifestations of it, was decriminalised in Romania in 2001, when Article 200 of the Penal Code was fully repealed. Since 2000, the country has an anti-discrimination law which explicitly prohobits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, despite significant legislative progress on LGBT issues, social attitudes remain conservative and discrimination remains widespread, with the 2006 Bucharest GayFest, held in early June, provoking a violent reaction from many passers-by, even if it took place successfully due to heavy police protection.

A personal report of this situation, written by Răzvan, one of the teens, can be found at:

http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/2006july/2901.htm