Timișoara Pride Week

The tradition & historical record

Timișoara Pride Week, also known as Pride TM, is a festival dedicated to the LGBT community that takes place annually in Timișoara, Romania, since 2019. Chronologically, it is the third festival of its kind in Romania after those in Bucharest (2004) and Cluj-Napoca (2017). The first edition took place between 3 and 7 June 2019 and was organized by two local LGBT NGOs, Identity.Education and eQuiVox. It was funded by MozaiQ through the Community Fund and individual donations. ¹

The LGBT rights movement in Romania began to gain ground in the mid-1990s, after homosexual relations between two consenting adults were decriminalized in 1996. Later, in 2001, Article 200, which punished homosexual relations with imprisonment, was repealed entirely. In 2000, the Isărescu Government introduced an anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation in the areas of goods and services, healthcare, education, employment and housing, and in 2006 hate crimes and incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation were outlawed. All this allowed greater social visibility of LGBT people and their culture and created the premises for organizing and LGBT festival; the first edition of Bucharest Pride (then known as GayFest) took place in 2004, while the first pride parade unfolded in 2005. Up until 2017, Bucharest Pride was the only event of its kind in Romania. Over the years, LGBT-related events also sprung up in regional cities. As of 2026, pride parades take place in Bucharest (by far the largest), Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Oradea and Timișoara. The appearance of other events outside the capital, including Timișoara, was mainly catalyzed by the constitutional referendum of 2018, which sought to ban same-sex marriage. ¹

The first edition of the festival was organized between 3 and 7 June 2019. The events included, among others, a vernissage, an info bio show at the German State Theatre, a conference on LGBT rights hosted by the West University, a picnic in Queen Marie Park and parties in local venues. The 2019 edition had as partners the Timișoara – European Capital of Culture Association, the Student Organization of the West University of Timișoara, the Timiș County Youth Foundation, as well as the West University of Timișoara.