STIRIGAY.RO EXCLUSIVE: Why Romanian Stars are not assuming their sexuality?

It's not a secret to anyone that the sexuality of our gay stars is a taboo. They prefer to stay hidden, to avoid commentaries or to make statements, many of them having buffer-relations between them and the press. Why are they doing it?

Maybe because the society isn't prepaired, maybe because they are advised to do so, maybe because it is harder for a gay to make it to the top in Romanian showbiz. Or maybe because they feel they are not members of this community. A lot of possibilities that StiriGay.ro is trying to solve together with the editor ofVoxPublica and famous journalist, Costi Rogozanuand the psychologist and permanent advisor of our site, Sorin Georgescu.

Why Romanian Stars are not assuming their sexuality publicly although about many of them everybody knows unofficialy that they are gay?

Sorin Georgescu: An answer could be given related to the culture and education and the knowledge of the phenomenon (In Romania, the knowledge, where exists, is diformed especially by the people that suppose to explain it).

The culture, for most of the societies where the system was communist-dictatorship had at basys the feeling of fear (even panic) that was induces on purpose by the government to the mass because they were different from the mass. The mass then looked at the "others", the "different ones", with intolerance and inadequate, all of this on top of the lack of sexual education.

So it seems we are trained to not accept diversity in sexual area as well as we are hardly accepting it in all other domains, less sensitive that the sexual one (politics, for example).

Basicly, the majority is thinking like the world is as wide as I can think or feel "myself". Anything that is beyond these limits is bad, decadent, unacceptable. And the conffusion seems to me that was fueled by some of the members of the LGBT community in a way that, concious or unconcious, they are not assuming totally their status and their tendencies.

Costi Rogozanu: Because for the moment there is not an immediate reason to admit publicly the sexual identity. You have more to suffer than to gain if you assume it. There's this guy on Acasa TV that is a sort of a media hero but I think that the costs are still to big for him assuming that he is gay. The attitude is still powerfully retrograde from the public and from the media producers too.

What could happen if they are doing it?

Costi Rogozanu: There is a risk in the media that still exists everywhere, not only in Romania that everybody will talk only about that. You could be the best scubadiver, archaeologist, but everybody will talk only about that you are gay, not about your professional accomplishments. Soon you'll be sick about all that talking about your sexuality. How would it be if everybody would talk all day long about our Prime Minister, Emil Boc that he is straight. It is irrelevant. A Romanian risk for this is the delicate elimination from the "serious people's league", meaning that if you admit that you are gay, you suddenly become a circus freak, either you want, either you don't. And nobody wants that.

Sorin Georgescu: The loss of a status that was obtained before the orientation of the individual was known or recognised by the close entourage in he evolved or acceded, will diminish or even lose the previous acquisitions on the proffesional image. It's about association with a pervert, imoral or unstable profile, in other words, unworthy to keep such a position or such a status.

Is it possible that they are afraid not to be associated with the controversial image of the persons that appear everyday on TV and that now are considered symbols of the Romanian gay community?

Costi Rogozanu: Yes, they are ridiculise the community as well as the major of 5th district in Bucharest is ridiculising the straight community. These risks exist all the time. But it shouldn't be a hold in expressing public some serious discrimination or perception issues.

Sorin Georgescu: It's a natural fear and I could say it's based on the uncertainty of some members of the community to assume their own tendencies. Here the media had a bad influence because they promoted (for rating's sake) people that are not an honour for any community and especially for the gay one it raises the level of unacceptance and untolerance.

Do you think that the coming out of the stars will help the LGBT community?

Costi Rogozanu: Yes, if instead of the cheap drags from TV a professor from a University wil talk about the gay people, everybody will have something to gain. There are so less serious studies, history books or analysis of the gay destiny in Romania. We know just a few of the scandals framed by Securitate (communist secret police) in some gay communities from the 40's or 50's. But a cheap tv star couldn't write about all these stuff. It must be an intellectual involved it clearing all these missing links and he must be ready to assume some risks. It's obvious that it must be developed a new language that crosses beyond the fake dillema "is it or it is not gay" and passes to the next level, "the sexual orientation has no importance more than the ID serial number" but it is very important the man or his message.

What is the public perception of the LGBT community?

Sorin Georgescu: For each section of LGBT, dominant are intolerance and unacceptance, with the difference that each of the sections has different levels of perception concerning agressivity and unacceptance.

What is the community's opinon on the community?
We asked the StiriGay.ro fans from our Facebook page what is their's opinion on public image of the Romanian gay community. We chose two answers, one from a foreigner and one from a Romanian guy.

"I don't know much about Romanian gay community but I can say I don't know much about modern Romania. After all, it might be a general identity problem of Romanian at the level of individual perception in Europe", told us a gay reader, 40 years old, an Englishman living in Paris.

"What can I tell ... In Romania, in the last few years I noticed a better opening especially in the big cities like Bucharest or Constanta where the people are more tolerant and more open", said a Romanian reader, 29 years from Constanta.