SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Protesters gathered outside Bulgaria’s parliament on Thursday to condemn a controversial bill passed the day before that would have banned talking about LGBTQ+ and so-called non-traditional sexual choices in schools.
The protest was organized by feminist, LGBTQ+ and other rights groups calling for a repeal of the amendment and a ban on what advocates call “LGBTQ+ propaganda in schools.”
The protesters waved the rainbow flag and chanted slogans such as “Bulgaria is not Russia” and “Silence means death” as police officers guarded the gathering. No violence was reported.
The Bulgarian parliament on Wednesday approved the amendment to the Bulgarian constitution. education legislation submitted by the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party and surprisingly supported by some pro-European Union parties. Lawmakers in the 240-seat parliament voted 159 in favor of the change.
The amendment prohibits the “promotion, popularization, and support of ideas and opinions related to nontraditional sexual orientation or sexual identification that is not biological” in schools.
In a separate vote on Wednesday, lawmakers also approved a law defining “non-traditional sexual orientation” as an orientation that is “other than the generally accepted and established concepts in the Bulgarian legal tradition of emotional, romantic, sexual or sensual attraction between persons of the opposite sex”.
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, has been criticised for violating the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and has been urged to ensure its recognition and protection. Bulgaria has also refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women, due to the widespread belief that it means advancing LGBTQ+ rights.
European human rights organisations, such as Forbidden Colors in Belgium, condemned the legislation as an attack on the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ people, especially children.
“It is deeply disturbing to see Bulgaria adopting tactics from Russia’s anti-human rights playbook. Such actions are not only regressive, but also in direct contradiction to the values of equality and non-discrimination that the European Union stands for,” Forbidden Colors said in a statement on its website.
Similar anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been passed in other countries in the region, including HungaryBosnia, Moldova and Turkey.
