Puiu Hașotti


Puiu Haşotti is a Romanian politician. He is a vice-president of the National Liberal Party and the leader of the party's group in the Senate.
In April 2013, Haşotti incited controversy by declaring that he considers gay people to be "sick people". He also said that, "Homosexuality is not a normal state, it is not a natural relationship". The comments were made in the context of political debate about same-sex civil unions in Romania. Accept, Romania's national LGBT rights organisation, stated that they believed Haşotti's comments were a breach of anti-discrimination law and would report him to the National Council for Combating Discrimination.

Early Life and education

Puiu Haşotti was born on June 14, 1953 in Constanta, and graduated from the Faculty of History, University of Bucharest in 1976. He received his doctorate in historical sciences in 1995. The year before he was a Fulbright Fellow at San Francisco State University. Before entering politics, Haşotti worked as a curator, principal curator and then senior researcher. He also was a counselor at Constanta County Inspectorate for Culture, and a lecturer at the University Ovidius Constanta, Faculty of History. He later gained an associate professorship at this institution, which he still holds.