Evelyne Paradis is the executive director of ILGA-Europe, an umbrella organization working for LGBTQ equality and human rights in Europe and Central Asia.

When voters in Romania turn up to vote in a referendum in October, they might think they’re casting a ballot on the legal definition of a family. In reality, the vote’s consequences are much further-reaching. They are a distraction from the country’s pressing problem of corruption.

At the ballot box next month, voters will be asked to back or strike down a proposal to alter the constitution to restrict the definition of a family to one based on the marriage between a man and woman.

In truth, the initiative — launched in 2015 by a coalition of NGOs that receive backing from the Orthodox church — is a dangerous diversion tactic. For the government, which gave its backing to the proposal, it’s a useful way to distract voters, thousands of whom took to the streets earlier this year to protest rampant corruption.

As such, the vote is doubly dangerous.

To begin with, it would replace the current neutral description of the family with one that only recognizes married couples of opposite sexes. As a result, the rights of other non-traditional families — a single parent raising a child, a rainbow family with two same-sex partners, a grandparent raising grandchildren — would not be constitutionally protected. Read more via Politico