site.btaRomania's LGBT Movement Critics Hold Counter-demonstration after Bucharest Pride

A Christian March was held in downtown Bucharest on Sunday evening as a counter-demonstration after the annual LGBT rights festival Bucharest Pride, which involved a record 25,000 participants a day earlier.

Three hundred people, organized by the owner of the FCSB football club, retraced the route of Bucharest Pride "to drive the evil spirits away". Most of the counter-demonstrators carried the Romanian national flag, and some wore folk costumes.

Sunday's event was joined by priests of the Romanian Orthodox Church, who sprinkled passers-by with holy water. There were also members of the Orthodox Brotherhood (Fratia Ortodoxa), a non-governmental volunteer organization affiliated with the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, a right-wing political party.

Bucharest Pride has been held annually since 2005. This time, it proceeded under the motto "Visible Love, Visible Families", focusing on the right to have a family, which is recognized and legally protected by the Romanian state, regardless of one's sexual orientation and gender identity, said the ACCEPT association, which works for the protection of LGBT rights.

The United States Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Romania supported Bucharest Pride in a joint statement. They urged the Romanian authorities to address the flaws of national legislation which prevent LGBT rights from being fully respected. The embassies, quoted by local media, stressed the importance of the values of equality, diversity, non-discrimination and universal human rights.

The Church disapproved of Bucharest Pride. "Homosexuality was, is, and will remain unnatural as one of the sins going against the nature of humans which was created by God with profound moral and spiritual meaning to it," said Vasile Banescu, a spokesman for the Romanian Patriarchate.