Rise OUT is the first LGBTQ+ association founded in Iași and the organisation behind Iași Pride, the city's queer festival and street march. It works as an association rather than as a venue, so there is no door to walk through, but it is the fixed point of queer life here.
Its programme runs to film screenings, exhibitions, drag workshops, talks and parties, all of them held in partner venues around town. It also runs a peer support group for LGBTQ+ adults, kept deliberately to a small closed circle, and maintains a list of LGBTI-friendly doctors, psychologists and lawyers in Iași that people can ask for.
Romania sits near the bottom of Europe for LGBTQ+ rights, and Iași is a conservative city with no gay bar and no gay club. Almost everything queer that happens in public here happens because this association organised it.
The people in this picture are AI-generated.
