Social perception of homosexuality in Romania

An mHealth Intervention to Improve Young Gay and Bisexual Men’s Sexual, Behavioral, and Mental Health in a Structurally Stigmatizing National Context

“…This study adapts and preliminary tests an HIV-prevention intervention for YGBM [52] in Romania, a country with a high degree of homophobic stigma, increasing HIV prevalence among GBM, and scarce GBM-affirmative resources [3]. After adapting a US-based intervention in close consultation with Romanian key informants, we tested it for preliminary efficacy with 43 at-risk YGBM.…”

“…HIV transmission among gay and bisexual men (GBM) is an increasing concern in Central and Eastern European countries, such as Romania, where previously reported low HIV rates are increasing [1,2]. GBM are a relatively hidden [3], yet highly vulnerable emerging HIV risk group in Romania, a country with one of the highest numbers of unrecognized HIV/AIDS cases in that region [4,5]. Currently, HIV transmission is largely driven by male-to-male sexual contact [5-7].…”

“…Commensurate preventive resources are needed to counteract the increasing HIV incidence among Romanian young GBM (YGBM) [4,6,8-12]. However, this group faces some of the highest stigma and discrimination in Europe [12,13], including in health care [3], where GBM-specific expertise is limited. Consequently, Romanian YGBM often conceal their sexual orientation [5,14], have low rates of HIV testing [1,2], and often do not disclose their sexual behavior to providers, all of which likely lead to the rising HIV epidemic [15].…”

“…Sexual orientation stigma and subsequent discrimination have been shown to be associated with increased vulnerability [10,16], including in relation to HIV transmission, such as condomless sex (in the absence of preexposure prophylaxis), substance and alcohol use, poor mental health, and suboptimal HIV testing [17-21], which combine to form a syndemic (ie, synergistic epidemic) that further exacerbates HIV risk [21-35]. Accurate psychiatric data are not available for Romanian YGBM due to identity concealment motivated by fear and suboptimal medical record tracking [3,36]. However, nonprobability surveys and interviews suggest that Romanian YGBM report high levels of depression and alcohol abuse [37], which has been shown by numerous cross-European studies to be linked to exposure to stigma and discrimination [38-42].…”

Old and New Hierarchies: Rewritten Social Norms in "Silent Valley"

“…In the light of this, it is less surprising that Romania is still one of the most homophobic and conservative countries in Eastern Europe (Moraru, 2010). Most of the ex-nomenklatura politicians and the majority of Generation 35 consider gay activities to be sinful, unnatural acts that lead to social decay (Natase, 2004).…”