The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner on Monday said he was “deeply concerned” by an LGBTQ “promotion” ban passed by Bulgaria’s parliament, urging President Rumen Radev “not to sign it”.
Bulgaria last Wednesday passed changes to its education law, widening its scope to ban LGBTQ “propaganda” in schools in what rights groups have slammed as “discriminatory”.
The law now bans the “propaganda, promotion or incitement in any way, directly or indirectly, in the education system of ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation and/or gender identity other than the biological one”.
Human Rights Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty wrote on X that he was “deeply concerned by the recent law passed by Bulgaria’s Parliament to ban so-called LGBTI ‘propaganda’ in schools”.
“I call on President Radev not to sign it,” he said.
“Authorities should tackle discrimination and hostile rhetoric against LGBTI people, including in the run-up to elections.”
The amendment, which was proposed by the European Union country’s pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party, sparked protests in the capital with demonstrators chanting “Shame on you”.
Homophobic ideas often feature in Bulgaria’s political debate and in the media, as the former communist republic faces its seventh parliamentary elections in three and a half years amid serious political instability.
Lawmakers blamed a need to act quickly on what they deemed as the “unacceptable normalisation of a non-traditional sexual orientation” in recent “propaganda”.
The parliament took advantage of the climate of “culture war” around the Paris Olympics to pass the reform, said lawyer Denitsa Lyubenova from Deystvie LGBTQ rights group.
The Orthodox Church lambasted the show, which included a number of minorities. Bulgaria also slammed Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, Olympic athletes whom they said represented “the other sex”.
The Balkan country does not recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions.
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