{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='‘In their eyes, we are not a family’: Romanian couple explain referendum boycott' data-url='/boclips/videos/6878c8cb860c8396ee54cdae' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/6878c8cb860c8396ee54cdae' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\n‘In their eyes, we are not a family’: Romanian couple explain referendum boycott\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eAs Romania takes to the polls this weekend for a referendum on the constitutional definition of marriage, Florian Buhuceanu and Victor Ciobotaru are staying at home. The couple, who have been together for almost five years, said they...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eAs Romania takes to the polls this weekend for a referendum on the constitutional definition of marriage, Florian Buhuceanu and Victor Ciobotaru are staying at home. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe couple, who have been together for almost five years, said they want to avoid the “ugly process” that seeks to amend the country’s constitution to redefine marriage as being only between a man and a woman rather than “two spouses”. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“It’s about injecting hate deliberately in the Romanian society,” said 47-year-old Buhuceanu, a prominent LGBT activist who heads the rights group Accept. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“It’s about dividing people, families and Romanians into two separate classes using the referendum as the most democratic process.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe couple met at the beginning of 2014. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“Our first date was more of a meeting. We started to talk online. I remember him from TV when I was far away in my village. He was one of the very few public gay [people] in Romania,” said Ciobotaru, 30. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“I had some curiosities about the past and the LGBT community in Romania and this is how our first meeting happened. But the first meeting was followed by other dates and I’ve fallen in love with this wonderful man who now is my partner. We decided to move in together and since then we are a couple, we are a family.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e'That was the moment my mum found out her son was gay' \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBuhuceanu and Ciobotaru live together with their cat in an apartment in central Bucharest. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBut while they are committed to a future together, not everyone has been supportive of their relationship. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“There is no visibility around the LGBT community. It is still something exotic, something new,” Buhuceanu told Euronews. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBuhuceanu recalled that he first came out as gay “many, many years ago” in what he described as a “rather unfortunate situation”. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“I was asked in a TV studio about legal issues concerning homosexuality...The first question that moderator asked was something like. ‘How do you feel, being a homosexual in this country?’ That was the moment my mum found out her son was gay.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eWhile his mum has accepted his sexuality, Buhuceanu said some members of his wider family are still struggling to understand. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eFor Ciobotaru the process of coming out was also a difficult one. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“I studied theology. I struggled all this time with the fact that I’m a homosexual and I knew that the bible and the church condemns who I am but at the same time I felt that there is nothing wrong with who I am,” he said. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eCiobotaru spent years coming to terms with his sexuality before making it public a year ago. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eWhile some were supportive, he said other close friends “completely changed their attitude towards me.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“That is sad because I’m the same person they know for a very long time. I have the same values, I didn’t change in any way. It’s just the fact that they found out one more thing about me. That I am gay,” he said. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e'It’s the beginning of a very dangerous and a toxic process' \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“He received threats, physical threats of violence. Sometimes there’s a very fine line between these verbal threats and physical threats,” Buhuceanu added. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eBoth men have dealt with threats, isolation and awkwardness because the “fear [of the LGBT community] is prevalent.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThey say the atmosphere has heightened amid campaigning for this weekend’s two-day referendum. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe vote was called after Coalition for the Family — a collection of NGOs who want to preserve the “traditional family” — collected three million signatures in support of the constitutional change in 2016. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe head of the group, Mihai Gheorghiu, has dismissed concerns that the referendum could threaten the safety of LGBT people in Romania. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“For them, nothing will be changed. They are under the protection of Article 26 of our constitution so they have their protection and nothing evil can happen to them,” he told Euronews. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“It’s a matter of expressing our will and our values.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e'In their eyes, we are not a family, we are an anti-family' \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eLGBT groups in Romania have reported rising cases of hate crimes in the run-up to the vote. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“I realised from the very first moment that it’s the beginning of a very dangerous and a toxic process,” Buhuceanu said. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“In their eyes, we are not a family, we are an anti-family, we are trying to destroy the traditional family.” \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eLike others opposing the vote, the couple plan to spend time together throughout this weekend, in hopes that if enough people boycott the referendum it will fail to reach the five million votes — or 30% of the electorate — needed to validate the result. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e“Sexual orientation is actually not only about who are you sexually attracted to. But it’s also about who you love, who you care about, who you dream about and who you make plans for the future with,” Ciobotaru said. \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eAs they dodge the ballots this weekend, they say they can only hope that the referendum has the unintended result of\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='resource-details-heading'\u003eResource Details\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-resource-details clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eCurator Rating\u003c/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e\u003cspan class=\"star-rating\" aria-label=\"3.5 out of 5 stars\" role=\"img\"\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid fa-star text-action\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid fa-star text-action\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid fa-star text-action\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-solid fa-star-half-stroke text-action\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003ci class=\"fa-regular fa-star text-action\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/dd\u003e\n\u003c/dl\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt class=\"educator-rating-title\"\u003eEducator Rating\u003c/dt\u003e\u003cdd\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"educator-rating-details\" data-path=\"/educator_ratings/rrp_data?resourceable_id=91049000\u0026amp;resourceable_type=Boclips%3A%3AVideoMetadata\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"not-yet-rated\"\u003eNot yet Rated\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/dd\u003e\n\u003c/dl\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eMedia Length\u003c/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e2:49\u003c/dd\u003e\n\u003c/dl\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eGrade\u003c/dt\u003e\u003cdd title=\"Grade\"\u003e9th - Higher Ed\u003c/dd\u003e\n\u003c/dl\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eSubjects\u003c/dt\u003e\u003cdd\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca href=\"/search?keywords=basic+electrical+engineering\u0026amp;search_tab_id=1\u0026amp;subject_ids%5B%5D=358379\"\u003eSocial Studies \u0026amp; 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