In Bulgaria, the government wants to dictate which sexual orientation is normal and which is not. Schools will therefore no longer teach “non-traditional sexual” topics. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev signed a corresponding amendment to the education law in Sofia. Parliament had previously approved the ban on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” by a large majority. The English abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.
“Protect the children”
The change in the law prohibits any education about LGBTQ content and an identity that “deviates from biological sex.” The official justification is that children must be protected from an alleged drift into homosexuality or gender reassignment.
The model for the change in the law in Bulgaria is similar anti-LGBTQ regulations in Hungary. There, speaking about homosexuality in front of minors has been punishable by a fine since the summer of 2021. In Georgia, too, parliament passed a law banning LGBTQ “propaganda” at the end of June. In Russia, similar laws are used to suppress sexual minorities.
The initiator of the Bulgarian law change was the far-right party Vazrashdane (Rebirth), which became the fourth strongest force in the most recent parliamentary elections on June 9, 2024 with 13.8 percent and has 38 deputies in the People’s Assembly. The pro-Russian Vazrashdane is enjoying growing approval. Between 2020 and 2022, it mobilized against corona vaccinations. It rejects any aid for Ukraine. In 2022, the party tried to introduce a “Foreign Agents Law” copied from Russia into parliament, but the attempt failed. The LGBTQ law was approved by 159 of the 240 deputies of the Bulgarian parliament. Among them were parliamentarians from the center-right alliance GERB-SDS, the populist party ITN, the Socialists and the Party of Bulgarian Muslims, DPS. The liberal-conservative PP-DB alliance voted against the amendment in particular.
After the vote in parliament, 70 Bulgarian human rights groups called on the president not to approve the change in the law, and 6,000 people signed a petition to that effect. The European Council for Human Rights also expressed “deep concern” and called on the Bulgarian authorities to stop “discrimination and hostile rhetoric” against LGBTQ people.
“Homophobic ideology”
Immediately after the signing, human rights groups called for protests. According to the non-governmental organization LevFem, the change in the law now makes it impossible “to take action against the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in schools.”
The change in the education law is not unexpected: homophobic ideas are widespread in the political debate in Bulgaria and in the media. Marriage for all is not recognized in the Balkan country, and the EU member state has not ratified the Istanbul Convention on combating violence against women.