In the public sphere and the courtroom, a Moldovan activist group has brought the issues facing queer people out of the shadows and won milestone victories.
In 2010, M., a young gay man, fell victim to a brutal attack in Chisinau after connecting with someone online. Left unconscious in sub-zero temperatures, clad only in his underwear, his fate took a fortunate turn when a compassionate couple stumbled upon him. Later, he decided to turn to the only institution he trusted to ask for help.
The 2010 attack on M. was one of the first cases documented by Genderdoc-M, or GDM, the oldest civil society organization actively promoting the rights of the LGBTQ community in Moldova.
It changed both the life of the young man and GDM. The organization lent its support when he decided to file a police report, ultimately leading to the apprehension of the assailants.
First Steps
Back in 2010, the situation in Moldova was not exactly rosy for LGBTQ people. Chisinau City Hall had banned a Pride march from taking place over “security and public morality concerns.” GDM appealed the ban, but it took 12 years of defeats in the Moldovan courts and deliberations by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) until the organization won a final judgment –nearly a decade after it succeeded in organizing the first Pride march in Chisinau over the misgivings of conservative groups and some politicians.
Chisinau’s Pride parade overcame a rocky start to become an annual event that draws more participants and spectators every year. Video © Thomson Reuters.
“Strategic litigation” – legal action designed to effect societal change – became a priority for GDM. The group began working with a lawyer with a background in human-rights work, Doina Ioana Straisteanu. Together, they drafted the working methods that have guided the organization ever since.
“We understood the importance of having a lawyer who knew how to be strong and stand by the client amid attacks and manipulation,” says Angelica Frolov, coordinator for LGBTQ rights and advocacy at GDM, referring to what she said were attempts by others to gaslight and manipulate victims to retract their complaints.
They set out to utilize existing national legislation to advocate for the rights of the LGBTQ community and to create new legal instruments that are supportive and inclusive of the community.
“The image of the organization during these years has evolved because of the insistence with which it demanded equal treatment for LGBTQ people and the sanctioning of abusive and criminal behavior,” Straisteanu says.
Still, she admits, many in the queer community are still hesitant to seek help out of fear of discrimination, rejection, mockery, or the potential exposure of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Just since the beginning of this year, GDM has raised the alarm on several occasions: on 24 January a young trans man was spat on, harassed, and humiliated in a trolleybus in Chisinau; the Migration Inspectorate refused the asylum applications of five queer Russian citizens; and the separatist Transnistria region announced its intention to adopt a law punishing “LGBT propaganda.”
In 2023, GDM documented incidents of homophobia, violence, harassment, and verbal attacks on LGBTQ people, including in schools.
GDM vs. the Army
One case that sparked outrage and made even Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, intervene, underscores how vulnerable LGBTQ people still are, despite legal protections enacted in recent years.
In 2021, Marin Pavlescu, a young man doing mandatory military service, posted a public video message declaring that he would not return for duty because of the harassment he faced due to his sexual identity.
He acknowledged the potential consequences and understood that his actions might be perceived as desertion.
Straisteanu provided legal assistance when he sued the Defense Ministry and, Pavlescu says, GDM moved quickly to see that he received psychological counseling and legal support.
He decided to take legal steps against the ministry and the infantry brigade he served in because, he says, of “discrimination, physical violence, bullying, and everything that happened to me and what I was subjected to there.”
In December 2023, a Chisinau court ruled that Pavlescu was entitled to 120,000 Moldovan lei ($26,000) in moral damages and legal costs. Not satisfied with this compensation, he appealed, seeking the 1.5 million lei he originally demanded.
GDM is also helping protect Pavlescu from threats.
“An unknown person called me on [Facebook] Messenger and threatened me with death,” he says. Through Straisteanu, he lodged a complaint against the person with the police.
Police arrested a suspect when he returned to Moldova, GDM said in September.
GDM does not limit its services to LGBTQ people. Back in 2012, the organization went to court on behalf of civic activist Oleg Brega, who sued a social media livestreaming service for failing to moderate comments to a Genderdoc-organized conference the service streamed. He said he had been the target of insults and threats that damaged his reputation.
Reversal of Judgment
In a typical year, 30 to 40 people seek legal advice from the organization on matters from discrimination at the workplace to physical abuse.
Since 2010, Straisteanu has represented 30 people in court on behalf of GDM and usually won the case.
But not always. Frolov gave insights into one high-profile case concerning Marchel, the controversial, outspoken, Orthodox bishop of Balti.
Marchel made statements that “the equal opportunity law has opened the door wide for homosexuals” and that they should “not even be allowed to work in educational institutions, health care institutions, and public catering institutions” as “92% of gays are carriers of HIV and AIDS.”
GDM sued Marchel, twice winning court judgments finding him liable for hate speech and incitement to discrimination against homosexuals.
The bishop then appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, which ruled in his favor in 2015, finding that his statements were within the limits of freedom of expression and contained no incitement to violence.
Not every client seeks or requires legal aid, Frolov explains. Some clients simply want their stories to be heard.
“This way, they know that, although the case does not end up in court, at least it will be mentioned in the annual reports of GDM and will reach both local organizations and international partners,” she says.
The group’s first client, the young man who was brutally assaulted on a winter’s night in Chisinau, sought not publicity, but legal redress, and won. Over a decade later, M. still expresses his gratitude to GDM for helping him recover his human dignity.
“Seeing that the court is on your side, that there is a lawyer on your side, that there is an organization on your side – all of this is crucial for a victim of violence,” Frolov says.
The crucial collaborative effort between GDM and Straisteanu works on the basis of a partnership agreement. The lawyer is not employed by GDM, because her workload vacillates depending on the complexity of the case at hand, from just a couple of hours a month to dozens of hours.
Prior to her work for Genderdoc-M, Straisteanu did legal work for the Moldovan Helsinki Committee and other human-rights groups and served on the EU-funded Council for Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality.
The annual budget of GDM ranges between 800,000 and 1 million euros. Similar to many civil society groups, GDM has little if any long-term funding from donors. Rather, it applies for help on a project-by-project basis.
The Moldovan state covers about 40 percent of the annual budget through funding for GDM’s program on prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The rest of the money comes from outside sources.
In addition to legal consultations, GDM’s 21 staff offer psychological counseling and help with accessing health services, and organize support groups for parents of LGBTQ people, trans people, or those living with HIV.
Despite such assistance, Angelica says GDM doesn’t always manage to reach potential beneficiaries and acknowledges that providing support to all can be a challenging mission.
Most often, a potential client reaches out to the organization to report violence, abuse, or discrimination. Staff then decide how and whether to collaborate with the lawyer.
Moldovans from smaller towns and rural areas are less aware of GDM’s activities, however. And for residents of Transnistria, just making contact with GDM can be a challenge.
The organization maintains communication with queer individuals from the unrecognized, Russian-sponsored territory, but underlines that providing on-the-ground assistance is impossible.
Progress and High Hopes
Genderdoc-M has come a long way since gay activist Alexei Marcicov and several friends founded the organization in 1998. (Marcicov remains part of the group as a consultant and honorary president.)
One early defeat for the organization later turned into victory. After its application to hold a demonstration outside the Moldovan Parliament to call for laws banning discrimination against sexual minorities was turned down by Chisinau authorities in 2005, it sued, but lost several Moldovan court rulings. Eventually the case reached the ECHR, which in 2012 ordered Moldova to pay a total of 11,000 euros in damages.
The Council of Europe later said the judgment influenced Moldovan lawmakers to lift the requirement for peaceful demonstrations to have official approval and to forbid local authorities from banning public events.
Even though GDM has been involved not only in successful legal cases, but also in changing attitudes through media awareness campaigns and training public officials, its managers are hesitant to take all the credit. They say a significant portion of their work with public bodies has been accomplished through the continuing support of the Swedish Embassy and the Council of Europe, helping them expand their training program.
The group has held training sessions on sexual orientation, gender identity, prejudice, and stigma for staff of the ministries of the interior, education, and defense, Frolov says.
GDM has been officially recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a public service organization, for its crucial role in providing social assistance on a national level.
The Moldovan ombudsman’s office also sees in Genderdoc-M an active partner, with solid expertise in the field of promoting and respecting the rights of queer people.
“For Moldova, the involvement of GDM through legal support contributes to the promotion and respect of human rights, including queer human rights, which is essential for the development of a democratic and inclusive society,” says deputy ombudsperson Oxana Gumennaia. “It also helps to strengthen the rule of law and create an international image of Moldova in terms of respect for human rights.”
Each year, foreign ambassadors join with messages of support for the community alongside GDM, which organizes the Pride march, held annually since 2013, except when pandemic restrictions forced its cancellation in 2020 and 2021. The marches draw increasingly large turnouts, in recent years including lawmakers, although they rarely take place without counter-demonstrations led by religious activists.
Years of hard work on the part of GDM and other activists may be starting to pay off. Moldova’s score has been steadily climbing to a mid-scale place on the annual ranking compiled by ILGA, an umbrella grouping of LGBTQ groups in Europe, earning the best marks for measures against hate crime and for non-discriminatory policies.
But the struggle with and for justice is far from over. Currently, Genderdoc-M is lobbying for legal recognition of families formed by two partners of the same sex, inspired by a series of ECHR rulings last year supporting the rights of same-sex couples in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland.
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Aliona Ciurca is a journalist based in Chisinau, Moldova, whose work focuses on human rights and social justice.
Photos courtesy of Genderdoc-M (Straisteanu photo from her LinkedIn page). Video by Reuters.
