JOIN USTwo days of voting on a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to legalise same-sex marriage is underway in Romania.
A conservative group initiated the referendum being held on Saturday and Sunday, and the influential Romanian Orthodox Church is backing it.
The proposed amendment would revise the definition of family in the Constitution of Romania to make marriage "a union between a man and a woman" instead of "a union between spouses."
Romanian law already prohibits same-sex marriages.
Opponents say the new constitutional language is a mean-spirited attempt to make LGBT people feel more like second-class citizens and also could marginalise households led by single parents or unmarried couples raising children.
The referendum requires a 30% turnout of registered voters to be valid. The proposed change would prevent any attempt to legalise same-sex marriage through legislation.
The vote came about after the Coalition for Family submitted a petition with 3 million signatures proposing for the constitution to be amended.
The group said it was concerned young Romanians were learning about so-called non-traditional family arrangements in school.
Gay rights groups say the constitutional revision could encourage homophobia by further promoting the view that only opposite-sex marriages are legitimate and same-sex relationships are unworthy of recognition or protection.
At a rally this week in southern Romania, Orthodox Bishop Sebastian Pascanu told believers that homosexuality was an "abnormality that first appeared in Western countries."
"This abnormality needs therapy, treatment rather than special laws like the ones that have different sexual orientations would like to have."
But others, like Marcel Badea, an electrician who lives in a southern Romanian village on the River Danube, said he'd boycott the vote.
"I am (already) a husband, a father and grandfather. I have nothing to vote for," he said.
"I don't need this referendum. Even if I vote 'no,' I will help the referendum get the turnout it needs."