Legislating political space for LGBT families: The 2018 referendum on the definition of family in Romania

As marriage is defined in post-socialist Romania as the union of two spouses and not specifically between a man and a woman, the legalisation of homosexuality in 2002 created the possibility for legal same-sex marriage and for a more inclusive sexual citizenship. By 2018, a political alliance mobilised a referendum to redefine marriage in a way that would make families headed by same-sex couples impossible. LGBT rights organisations and others who promote a more tolerant society urged Romanian citizens to boycott the vote. Eventually, due to a missing quorum the referendum was invalidated leaving the definition of marriage as it was – between two spouses. With a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, we analyse the way that this referendum functioned as a test of the re-definition of family within the post-socialist Romanian political space. The failure of this legislation then leads to our central question – were Romanians acting to promote a more tolerant and inclusive definition of family or were they merely reacting against the politicians, religious, and other influential groups who initiated the referendum? First, discourse analysis presents the various sets of ideas employed by actors involved for and against the referendum. Then we conduct a spatial analysis to reveal the territorial articulations of obedience to vote (voter turn-out) and the results of voting along with other demographic characteristics. Even though the majority of the population with the right to vote preferred to boycott the referendum, our research demonstrates the spatial articulation of attitudes towards LGBT families showing that in Romania there are five overlapping discourses: the tolerant, the politically conformant, the homophobic, the passive rural, and the homosexual.

本文研究了2018年罗马尼亚家庭定义公投的组织过程及其失败原因，重点分析促成家庭定义立法行动的行为者、网络和话语，以及公投地域性投票结果如何反映社会对LGBT家庭的接受程度。通过将罗马尼亚置于更广泛的性别地理学辩论中，本文探讨了围绕性少数群体权利的社会和政治动员，揭示了异性恋霸权和性公民身份在中东欧国家的复杂动态，进一步讨论了导致此次公投无效的多层次因素。

本文采用了地理信息系统分析与媒体档案话语分析相结合的研究方法，以探讨罗马尼亚家庭公投中的空间政治。通过地理信息系统分析，研究基于国家统计局和中央选举局的数据，结合19,040个投票站的信息，利用空间自相关局部指标（LISA）和地理统计方法（多重相关、多重回归、分层聚类分析及计算机辅助制图）量化并可视化不同地区投票行为的空间分布及其与人口统计特征的关系。话语分析方面，通过筛选两家主流媒体的线上文章（《Adevarul》和《Evenimentul Zilei》）及其他媒体来源，研究了2018年1月至2019年3月间有关家庭公投的报道，探讨政治、宗教及LGBT相关话语如何构建社会对性别与家庭的规范性理解。两种方法的结合揭示了地方性人口特征与政治、宗教及LGBT话语之间的互动如何影响投票态度和行为。

本文通过选举结果与人口变量的空间分析结合媒体话语分析，揭示了罗马尼亚家庭定义问题中的政治、宗教和LGBT话语的影响及其空间分布。研究发现，这些话语对不同地区的投票行为和社会态度产生了显著的区域性影响，体现了地方对政府及宗教话语的忠诚度，同时反映了政教联盟中隐藏的政治腐败问题，右翼势力在其中扮演了特殊角色。尽管2018年家庭公投因未达投票门槛而无效，宪法未明确禁止同性婚姻，但《民法典》依然将婚姻限定为一男一女之间。公投结果表明，社会中存在一定程度的LGBT包容性群体，这为未来的研究和推动更具包容性和宽容的社会提供了契机，同时凸显了关于家庭定义的社会张力与可能性。