The Bulgarian parliament has outlawed attempts to “promote” a “non-traditional sexual orientation” and an identity “other than biological” in schools, calling it “LGBT+ propaganda”.
The Bulgarian parliament voted by a large majority on Wednesday to ban LGBT+ “propaganda” in schools, a surprising vote in a context of “culture war” fuelled by the Paris Olympics, according to non-governmental organisations.
The amendment to LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual) “propaganda”, proposed by the pro-Russian far-right party Vazrajdane (Renaissance), was adopted with 159 votes in favour (22 against and 13 abstentions).
TO The amendment makes it illegal to “promote” a “non-traditional sexual orientation” and a gender identity “other than one’s biological one”similar to a Hungarian law heavily criticised by Brussels.
The speakers justified the need for swift legislation by citing the “unacceptable normalisation of non-traditional sexual orientation” caused by what they described as the “propaganda” currently underway.
For Denitsa Lubenova, a lawyer from the LGBT+ association Deistvie (Action), “took advantage” of the current “culture war” surrounding the Olympic Games to get this reform approved.
The Orthodox Church sharply criticised the opening ceremony, which included a spectacle featuring sexual and gender minorities and was widely associated with an attempt to recreate the Last Supper, and Bulgaria denounced the participation of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, considering them representatives of the “other sex”.
“With this law, the far right hopes to “improve its performance in the legislative elections” scheduled for two months from now, when the parties represented in parliament will not be able to form a governing majority,” Lubenova said in an interview with the AFP news agency.
According to Radoslav Stoyanov, vice-president of the Helsinki Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Bulgaria, the new legislation will prevent the dissemination of “scientific information” about minorities among students.
The NGO LevFem, which is organizing a demonstration late on Wednesday afternoon to denounce the approval of the text, believes that it will make it impossible to “combat school bullying against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.”
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union (EU), is experiencing serious political instability and, this autumn, voters will be called to the polls for the seventh time since 2021, due to a lack of a majority.
In Hungary, Since the summer of 2021, talking about homosexuality in front of minors is punishable by a fine.
In late June, the Georgian parliament also passed a law banning “LGBT+ propaganda,” very similar to legislation used in Russia to repress sexual and gender minorities.
Source: Observadora
