14/03/2018 at 13.30 in the city center Purple and Smile projects supported by volunteers from Sociability project unfurled rainbow flag. And so began our event devoted to the issue of tolerance for people with other preferences in choosing a lover in local community. Colorful flag was flying in the wind so in the sun it drew the attention of citizens. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make a conversation with interested man in Romanian language, but we talked to a woman about respect for the choices of all people no matter from where they are.
Flyers and board with pictures of famous people which support LGBT community were not so visible like flag but more productive. Although people usually reluctantly take flyers many of them have stopped for asking a question, expressing an opinion or giving a compliment. One couple shared their vision over problem of tolerance. They said that Roma people need a much higher level of acceptance and solidarity than LGBT community. So, it’s good to know for us volunteers that we have a lot that we need to work on. Some of people on the street told us that we are doing a great job bringing up tolerance to people from LGBT. A young who has had to stand up for her friends-gays more than once, has never seen before events like this in the city center. She was wondering with strangers from other countries are calling for respecting other choices in her city.
The time allotted for the event was coming to an end, children were playing under the flag and one mom asked them: “Do you like rainbow?”, “All colors in rainbow are good?”, “And black? and white?” Every time kids answered “YES!” All of us were born without tolerance. It’s something that can be achieved by learning and understanding. I believe that our event was a good way to reduce the aggression and rejection of people from LGBT community and those who support them.
