Romania Elects Pro-Gay, Anti-Corruption President. (UK Gay News).

Traian Basescu, the leader of the opposition, has been declared the new President of Romania, defeating the “leftist� Adrian Nastase, the Prime Minister.

The election victory gives hope to the Romanian gay community as Basescu is one of the few politicians in the country to publicly support gay rights.

His record on gay rights was one of the main issues that Social Democratic Party (CSD) opponents used against him in the presidential election.

It was in 2000 that Basescu, a former navy officer who commanded the largest ship in the Romanian navy for more than five years, became mayor of Bucharest. Then two years later, after he started a campaign for more tolerance towards gays, the government repealed Section 200 of Romanian law which dealt with sexual offences and opened the way to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.