Rhodanum

Well... what can I say about myself? I'm a nineteen year-old high-school student (on the verge of graduation and college enrollment), from Romania, Eastern Europe (having been born in the neighboring country of Moldova, where I spent the first eleven years of my childhood).

I'm the kind of individual that draws stares on the street and elicits all kinds of reactions around here, due to my androgynous nature -- which makes it almost impossible for some people to tell exactly what I am (something that sits perfectly well with me, since I view myself as being gender-queer and generally have little patience for the simplistic binary system of dividing gender that is used today). I'm also a bisexual (with a marked preference for women) and rather unashamed of my nature, which guarantees that I'm not exactly the most popular person in this little corner of the world!

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Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

-- Aung San Suu Kyi

Silent

Welcome to GTF

rileycoyote

wow you definitely sound like an interesting guy. do you usually wear guys clothes, or girls (or a mix). I've never heard of Moldova to be honest, i'd like to hear more about it.

Rhodanum

Generally I prefer to dress in as much of a gender-neutral manner as I possibly can - usually in loose shirts and sports attire. I only ever wear more female-oriented clothes at official occasions, due to the annoying insistence of my family members (because they're adamant on keeping up pretenses of so-called normalcy, even though I've never identified with my birth gender. Go figure ).

*laughs* I'm honestly not surprised that you haven't heard of Moldova - it is a rather small and economically insignificant country, right on the border with Russia. I was quite glad to leave and even though Romania isn't all that great either, it does have a much better standard of life by comparison.

I should add that these two countries (Romania and Moldova) were originally one single state, before their political separation in 1940 (when the Soviet Army came barging in and annexed Moldova into the USSR, where it's stayed, until 1991, when it declared itself an independent state). Essentially these two have the same language and culture, with the only difference being that Romania could align itself with the West somewhat, while Moldova was held back constantly by Russia's interests in the area.

__________________



Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

-- Aung San Suu Kyi

rileycoyote

cool, well Romania sounds like a really nice place. you should come to the USA cos you sound like a really interesting person. do they have many gay people in Romania/Moldova?

Rhodanum

Actually I've been thinking about emigrating to Canada for a while now -- because it has much more liberal laws towards gays (such as the right to civil unions) and due to the fact that it also houses one of the largest Romanian ethnic communities outside of the borders, something which would make me feel much less homesick (it's funny how I can hate this place for being so rabidly homophobic, but still be utterly in love with its culture and spirituality! )

That's all in the future, though - my main concern right now is finishing my studies and earning my degree. After that.... I'll just have to see.


I'd say there's a fair number of us around here, but it's practically impossible to say an official figure, simply because there are no census reading for this and due to the fact that a good deal of the gay/bisexual citizens prefer to be very quiet and discreet about their sexual orientation, in order to avoid being the targets of public outrage - often living in heterosexual marriages, in order to keep up pretenses.

For example, two weeks ago, at the fifth Gay Pride Parade, only around 150 participants showed up -- around half of which were gay-friendly heterosexuals, supporting us in our campaign for equal rights. That speaks plenty about the fear that many of us harbor towards being open and honest about this, I should think.

__________________



Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

-- Aung San Suu Kyi