Roma Girl ,11, gives birth on wedding day

I'm pretty disturbed to hear some of the anti-gypsy comments here. Let me see if I can clear things up a bit.

We don't mind being called gypsies, it's not really a slur and believe me, we a called much worse names. The Rom are "true gypsies" but there are other groups that fit under the general term. Rom have the strictest culture laws and are the most closed off from the gazos (non-gypsies), but all gypsy cultures have these in some degree.

We don't all steal, some do, some don't, it's not "gypsy culture" it's just something that's very much associated with us because, in much of Europe, we weren't allowed to work - no one will hire gypsies in much of eastern europe, or if they do, we're often paid less and treated worse. Most gypsies earn their living with a trade, some are in white collar businesses (though that is decidely outside gypsy culture).

In general, true gypsies are pretty clean, a lot of gypsies who are still nomadic are messy, but not dirty; we have strict cleanliness guidelines (in some ways similar to kosher laws), if we didn't we probably would have all died out of plague years ago.

Culturally, and in general practice, gypsy women are very chaste - I know that flies in the face of so many tales, stories, and common understanding. Sex is all tied up in marriage, family, and children, and there are a lot of really old fashioned ideas about the importance of the virginity of the bride. A gypsy girl who was raised in a traditional gypsy family would never have premarital sex.

One of the modern issues with gypsies-gaze relations is that in much of europe - particuarly eastern europe, the increasing role of govenment, the fall of communism, the modern society - has been damaging to the family structure of the gypsies. It's harder to travel, harder to live 'in the culture, but not of the culture' which has alway been the way gypsies interact with the local culture. Often the government intrudes into the raising of children and they no longer have the values of their people - producing girls like this young girl would turn their backs on their cultural values.

The reason it's insulting to call a Hungarian a gypsy - besides the obvious fact that you can't tell the difference - is because it is like calling a southern white man in 1935 a n*ggar. That is how they view us.

No one is an ex-gypsy. They may be an ex-nomad, or they may have turned away from their people, but no one is an ex-gypsy, just as no one is an ex-white.

Please don't assume that all streal criminals are gypsies, or that all gypsies are criminals. We don't see our "niche in society to steal" but rather to live and enjoy life wholeheartly, to provide for our families in ways that don't demean us as persons or force us to give up our culture and values. For some gypsies, this means stealing (which is wrong, I know), others find legal ways to earn a living. But in much of eastern europe, there is an unofficial policy of discrimination against gypsies that cuts off access to the few legal jobs avaliable to us, so do keep that in mind.

Blessings,

Masha