BREAKING NEWS

Romanians to vote on constitutional ban on same sex marriage

BUCHAREST - Romanians will vote at the weekend on whether to enshrine in their constitution that marriage must only be between a man and a woman in a referendum that has seen campaigners direct slurs at LGBT people and which activists said is open to fraud.
The conservative eastern European state already does not allow marriage or civil partnerships for same sex couples, nor does it recognize those performed abroad.
Regardless, Romanians will vote on whether to narrow the constitutional definition of marriage from a union of "spouses" at the initiative of a civil society group called the Coalition for the Family, which said the gender-neutral term could see gay couples win the right to marry in the future.
The vote needs a turnout rate of 30 percent, or more than 5 million people, to be valid.