site.btaUPDATED Proponents, Opponents to Legal Ban on "Non-traditional Sexual Orientation Propaganda" Demonstrate in Sofia

Two demonstrations prompted by recent amendments to the Pre-School and School Education Act that ban "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation" took place in downtown Sofia on Thursday evening. Opponents to the amendments gathered in front of the President's Administration building, demanding that President Rumen Radev veto the revisions. The event was organized on Facebook. The other demonstration, organized by the nationalist Vazrazhdane party in front of the National Assembly building, was in favour of the revisions.

No tensions arose between the two groups of demonstrators. Police presence in the area was beefed up. 

Earlier on Thursday, the presidential Press Secretariat reported that Radev had decreed the promulgation of the amendments to the Pre-School and School Education Act. The President thus expressed his attitude towards the Act, the Press Secretariat said.

Opponents to the amendments called on the President to resign because he failed to impose a veto.

A protester against the amendments called for more dialogue and understanding of what the matter is about. "We are all the same, we are human, what really makes us different is that we just have different sexual orientation, or we like different things, but we also hurt in the same way and we laugh in the same way, we share a lot of things together. So, it's really high time that we started talking to understand what's going on with them and what is happening here," she said. "For many years I've been living abroad, I'm trying to work now on issues related to human rights here in Bulgaria. When this happened several days ago [Parliament passing the amendments], I was ready to run away again. I really don't know why this dialogue is missing. I don't understand what's going on, but it's perhaps [because of someone's] interest, for us to be as divided as possible, to hate each other more," she commented.  

"Hands off our children," chanted the supporters of the revisions. Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said that by this bill "we have crushed gender ideology in Bulgaria". He commented that by decreeing the gazetting of the amendments, the President had done his job.

A woman supporting the revisions commented to BTA: "I just don't want them to stop us from protecting our children. Our children should not be touched while they are still not self-aware. They cannot yet decide for themselves what they want to be. They will be manipulated, tricked in this way. And I want them not to be subjected to that. A person, once they come of age, is somewhat conscious and can decide for themselves what they want. Personally, I don't have a problem with them, they have a problem with us."

On August 7, Bulgaria's National Assembly voted, 135-57 with eight abstentions, to ban any "propaganda, popularization or instigation in any way whatsoever, whether directly or indirectly, in the educational system of any ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation and/or gender identification otherwise than according to the biological sex". The plenary debate on amendments to the Pre-school and School Education Act, moved by Vazrazhdane, lasted some four hours before the draft legislation was approved on both first and second reading. 

The amendments define "non-traditional sexual orientation" as "notions of emotional, romantic, sexual, sensual attraction of persons of opposite sexes that are different from such notions as commonly accepted and established in the Bulgarian legal tradition". 

Earlier this week, over 7,000 members of the public and 76 NGOs signed a petition urging President Radev to veto the bill. On August 8, the leaders of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church expressed satisfaction with the ban. On August 12, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O'Flaherty, urged President Radev not to sign the ban on "propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation". The Commissioner also called on the Bulgarian authorities to tackle the discrimination of LGBTQ people.