In the heart of Sofia, under a sky that couldn’t decide between sun and rain, a rainbow flag fluttered defiantly. It was the penultimate day of what had become a grueling week-long protest against a draconian new law that threatened to silence Bulgaria’s LGBTQ+ community. The air was thick with tension, the kind that precedes a storm – or a revolution.
“We are here, we are queer, no law can make us disappear!” The chant rose from a sea of faces, some painted in vibrant hues, others etched with determination. Among them was Stefania, her eyes scanning the perimeter nervously. Just hours earlier, she had received a death threat – one of many that had been hurled at the protesters like poisoned darts.
“I’ve been on the streets for five days now,” Stefania confided, her voice barely audible above the din of the protest. “We’ve been spat on, cursed at, had bottles thrown at us. One of my friends was kicked in the stomach by a Nazi provocateur.” She paused, her gaze distant. “But we keep singing, we keep shouting. It’s what we have to do.”
The protest was a last-ditch effort to challenge a law that mirrors Russia’s notorious “gay propaganda” legislation – a law that the European Union has twice declared unconstitutional. Yet, in a chilling echo of authoritarianism, the Bulgarian parliament had rushed it through, passing it in two readings within a single day, silencing the voices of those it would most affect.
As night fell, the shadows seemed to come alive. A group of 30 neo-Nazis materialized, circling the protesters like wolves. The police, conspicuous in their absence throughout the week, remained passive bystanders to the unfolding drama.
“The municipality can’t have two protests at the same place,” explained Stoyan, another protester, his voice tinged with bitter irony. “They just wanted to put us at risk, to show us how pathetic and meaningless we are.”
The next day, the final day of the protest, brought a surreal twist. Another group, ostensibly protesting road violence, had been granted permission to occupy the same space. The LGBTQ+ protesters found themselves being asked to tone down their music, to make themselves smaller, less visible.
In a moment of raw vulnerability, one protester attempted to extend an olive branch, asking if they could show support for the other group’s cause. The response was swift and cruel – they were asked to leave, escorted away by the same police who had turned a blind eye to the violence against them all week.
This series of events unfolded against the backdrop of an open letter penned by the Solidarity Circle “You Are Not (A)lone,” a group uniting survivors of various forms of gender based violence and discrimination. The letter, addressed to the Bulgarian public, laid bare the insidious nature of the new legislation and the broader anti-gender movement sweeping across Europe and the world at large.
“What we are witnessing,” the letter states, “is a clear attempt to advance the covert agenda of the global populist movement against democracy, human rights, and prevention of social abuse of power and control.” The letter goes on to debunk the deceptive claims used to justify the legislation, exposing them as part of a larger strategy to mislead the public and obstruct progress in fighting discrimination and violence.
As the sun set on the final day of the protest, the air heavy with unrealized hopes, one couldn’t help but be reminded of James Baldwin’s prescient words: “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
In Bulgaria, it seems, the right to exist is still something the LGBTQ+ community must fight for, one rainbow flag at a time.
But the story doesn’t end here. As we go to press, reports are emerging of continued harassment, of protesters being recognized and targeted on social media. The urgency of their situation cannot be overstated.
As the international community turns its gaze to this corner of Eastern Europe, one question looms large: Will the arc of Bulgaria’s moral universe bend towards justice, or will the shadows of intolerance extinguish the rainbow’s vibrant hues?
“Sharing is caring,” one protester told me, her eyes shining with a mixture of fear and determination. “We need the world to know what’s happening here. We need help.”
The answer, it seems, lies not just in the halls of power in Sofia, but in the hearts and minds of people around the world who believe in the fundamental right of all humans to live, love, and exist freely.
For now, in the streets of Sofia, a chant continues to echo: “We’re here, we’re queer, no law can make us disappear.”
To the broad Bulgarian public from the Solidarity Circle for Mutual Aid Against Gender-Based Violence “You Are Not (A)lone” regarding legislative changes detrimental to the human rights of individuals from sex, gender, and sexual minorities, with specific constructive proposals.
To the broad Bulgarian public from the Solidarity Circle for Mutual Aid Against Gender-Based Violence “You Are Not (A)lone” regarding legislative changes detrimental to the human rights of individuals from sex, gender, and sexual minorities, with specific constructive proposals.
Dear fellow citizens,
We address you as members of the Solidarity Circle “You Are Not (A)lone (Не Си Сам(А)),” which unites survivors, relatives, friends, and allies of individuals who have survived or are still struggling to survive the effects of pedophilia, rape, sexual trafficking, domestic and partner violence, beatings, harassment, and persecution due to our inherent nature or the personal-social identity we have developed in the face of violence and oppression based on abuse of power and control.
We are writing to you with grave concern regarding the following:
The amendments to the Pre-School and School Education Act proposed by political party Revival (ПП Възраждане), which were hastily passed in August 2024 in two readings within a single day, without allowing for objections from the directly affected but parlamentarily unrepresented individuals from gender, sex, and sexual minorities, whose human rights have once again been grievously violated.
The attempt to pass by a similar procedure the no less scandalous and discriminatory amendments to the Child Protection Act, proposed by political party There Is Such a People (ПП Има такъв народ), once again to the detriment of sex, gender and sexual minorities.
What we are witnessing is a clear attempt to advance the covert agenda of the global populist movement against democracy, human rights, and prevention of social abuse of power and control, exposed by an increasing number of political institutions, academic authorities, non-governmental organizations, and media worldwide (known as the International Antigender Movement). By means of fake news, moral panic, popularization of conspiracy theories, and the distortion of scientific terminology, under the deceitful guise of caring for our children and preserving traditional values, agents of this malevolent movement typically attempt to mislead political decision makers, thereby effectively obstructing the fight against the forms of violence we have endured.
Examples include:
Deceptive claims that raising awareness, informing, educating, and preventing abuse, discrimination, and violence are “ideology,” “propaganda,” and “popularization.”
Deceptive claims that the personal-social gender (rather than sex or sexual) identity developed by every person in their growth process equals sex assigned at birth, and conspiracies that someone is attempting to promote and incite children to change their “sex identity as an alternative to biological sex”; perversely replacing scientific tools for analyzing social inequalities, such as the concept of gender (род), with “sex reassignment,” “non-traditional sexual orientation,” “pedophilia,” “gender ideology,” etc.
Deceptive claims that a person’s sexual orientation is a matter of tradition and choice, rather than an innate characteristics and an expression of natural diversity; that sexual education does not aim to build skills for preventing sexual, domestic, and partner violence and to foster skills for actions only at an appropriate age, based on mutual consent, but is a means of “destroying the traditional family.”
Deceptive claims that democracy equals the denial of the right to be heard and participate in decision making of public importance that affect us, and the imposition of a paleoconservative, authoritarian model of social governance, concentrating power on all societal levels — from personal life, through family, ethnic, religious, national, and international communities, etc.
Deceptive claims of normality of neo-fascist indoctrination of vulnerable youths into “hunting pedophiles,” beating “gays,” harassing “gender deviants,” “fighting non-binary nonsense” which is essencially demonizing and targeting inconvenient representatives of non-dominant social groups, human rights activists, equality and democracy advocates, and victims of violence daring to raise their voices in pursuit of justice.
We are compelled to cite our open letter to the Bulgarian public from November 20, 2023, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, hoping it will be taken into consideration. At that time, we raised an alarm about a series of failures in the Bulgarian state system related to the following, verbatim:
Absence of explicit constitutional protection for personal-social gender identity, which is developed after birth during the growth and maturation process. While the categories of sex (assigned at birth) and religious affiliation (often determined before maturation) are protected, gender (род) and identity, which are consciously consolidated later and are traditionally important to Bulgarians, are not.
Incorrect labeling and hearing of cases for updating identity documents as “sex reassignment cases,” in reference to grammatical gender (род) and the corresponding gendering of names.
Restriction of the right to justice and dignified life for transgender individuals based on the disgraceful interpretative decision of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cassation dated February 26, 2023.
Denial of the human right to atheism and non-religious self-identification, with blatant violation of Articles 37 and 38 of the Constitution of Bulgaria in terms of grounding secular court decisions, such as those for updating identity documents, on anti-atheistic and anti-scientific religious dogmas.
Humiliating treatment by law enforcement officers during identity checks of people with transgender and non-binary identities, such as arrests with handcuffs for presenting or not presenting a valid ID card, which the state has refused to update despite the requests by the affected citizens.
Validation of the following: a. Anti-gender propaganda by parliamentary political paries of conspiracy theories about the so-called ‘gender ideology’ fabricated by the international anti-gender movement. b. Calls for genocide, validated by the constitutional court based on genetic origin. c. Obstruction of civic education about personal-social identity (including its gender component) and its self-determined nature (including in terms of non-religious, atheistic affiliation).
Failure to provide effective legal protection against all forms of род- related violence, known in international legal literature as gender-based violence and in activist and academic circles as gender violence, including violence against women, children, the elderly, and individuals with non-dominant gender identities, domestic violence, partner violence, sexual slavery, rape, molestation of minors, forced marriage, forced circumcision, bans of abortion and bodily autonomy, romantic stalking, cyber harassment, etc.
Corrupt umbrella shielding of media unethically covering gender-based (род-based) violence and transgender identities and obstruction of training in ethical journalism using correct scientific terminology, including: a. Род (джендър), instead of пол (sex), as the equivalent of the international scientific term gender. b. Родистко насилие or джендърно насилие as the equivalent of the international legal term gender-based violence, instead of насилие основано на пола (“sex-based violence”) c. Родова идентичност or джендърна идентичност (gender identity), rather than полова идентичност (sex identity), as a component of every mature individual’s personal-social identity.
Ignoring public reports from the UN and various European foreign ministries regarding the harm of the international anti-gender movement funded by multimillion-dollar religious and conservative organizations, which undermines: a. The essence of democracy, as protecting the rights of all minorities. b. The multilateral political order, such as that of the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the UN. c. Global protection of human rights and freedoms, including the right to self-determination.”
ATTENTION! The new amendments and additions to the Pre-School and School Education Act and the newly proposed changes in the Child Protection Act are exacerbating rather than resolving the crisis described above.
In that respect,
WE CALL FOR:
The repeal of the recent, scandalous amendments to the Pre-School and School Education Act.
Rejection of the proposal by political party There Is Such a People for amendments to the Child Protection Act.
Urgent provision of legal protection for the categories of gender (род), gender identity (родова идентичност), and self-determination based on gender identity in Bulgarian legislation (Constitution, anti-discrimination law, etc.) and accession оf Bulgaria to the above- mentioned list of countries with progressive legislation.
Introduction of a purely administrative procedure, eliminating the court as an instance in the updating of identity documents based on gender identity. The new purely administrative procedure might retain the requirement for official submission of evidence of a clean criminal record and motives for requesting an identity-document update, but to municipal authorities only. Namely: a. Certificate of clear criminal record. b. Certificate of no pending criminal cases from the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. c. Certificate from the Sofia Metropolitan Police for no imposed coercive measures under the Bulgarian Identity Documents Act.
The new purely administrative procedure could reduce the bureaucratic burden, prevent judicial arbitrariness and abuse of power, eliminate the delay of court rulings for years, and the undermining of the dignity of applicants with transgender and non-binary identities, which has previously resulted in two penal rulings of the European Court of Human Rights against Bulgaria (Y.T. v. Bulgaria and P.H. v. Bulgaria).
The new administrative procedure and the elimination of the court as an instance in the updating of identity documents could also be an effective means for achieving systemic change and part of the judicial reform advocated by Gabriela Bankova, who is conducting a hunger strike supported by over 2400 of our fellow citizens and supportive allies. Link to the petition: https://action.allout.org/en/m/31a313c7/
Legal recognition of biological sex diversity (including the existence of intersex individuals) alongside social gender diversity (including the existence of transgender and non-binary individuals) and the removal of discriminatory binary sex markers from identity documentsBiology, genetics, anthropology, sociology, history, and several other sciences recognize the existence of more than two genders and sexes in the human species. Denial of this scientific truth is a significant obstacle not only for transgender, intersex, and non-binary individuals in our country but also for scientific freedom and societal literacy as a whole.
Medical procedures (such as surgeries, hormone therapy, and cosmetic interventions) for Intersex Individuals should be:a. Accessible to those who need them and are capable of providing informed consent; b. Prohibited for individuals who are unable to give consent (e.g., intersex infants and children).
Ban and measures against “conversion therapy”Including indirect but widespread practices, such as sending children and youth to ashrams and religious sects with the aim of suppressing the free expression of their gender identity.
Prevention through Information and educationThe unofficial censorship of topics related to biological sex diversity and social gender diversity should be ended, as well as attempts to impose official censorship. In educational environments, it is taboo to openly discuss even the existence of transgender, non-binary, and intersex individuals — this is anti-scientific and contrary to freedom of speech and the right to information access for young people and beyond. Ignorance is at the root of everyday discrimination against transgender, non-binary, and intersex individuals, both socially and institutionally, and not least, the increasingly frequent attacks on them. In this sense, it undermines the very foundations of democratic order, such as protecting minorities and ensuring the right of all citizens to participate in decision making.
We do hope that our detailed motivation and specific proposals will be taken into account.
Attached below is a bibliographic list of materials exposing the international anti-gender movement, which we rely on you to confront alongside us.
Sincerely,
Solidarity Circle for Mutual Aid
Against Gender-Based Violence
“You Are Not (A)lone”
Sofia, September 7, 2024
APPENDIX:
Bibliography for the International Anti-Gender Movement:
Pseudo-discussion on Gender Identity and Sexuality (ИК): Discursive Characteristics of ManipulationProf. Ralitsa Muharska
Who’s Afraid of GenderJudith Butler, PhD
The International Anti-Gender Movement: Understanding the Rise of Anti-Gender Discourses in the Context of Development, Human Rights, and Social ProtectionUnited Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Power Over Rights: Understanding and Countering the International Anti-Gender MovementCentre for Feminist Foreign Policy, commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland
Meet The Moment: A Call for Progressive Philanthropic Response to the Anti-Gender MovementGlobal Philanthropy Project
The Emergence of Powerful Anti-Gender Movements in Europe and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy
Anti-Gender Politics in East-Central Europe: Right-Wing Defiance to West-EurocentrismEszter Kováts, PhD
The Transnational Anti-Gender Movement in Europe
Attack on Democracy? Anti-Gender Movements in EuropeHeinrich Böll Foundation
CSIS Warns that the ‘Anti-Gender Movement’ Poses a Threat of ‘Extreme Violence’CBC News
Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist MomentAgnieszka Graff, Elżbieta Korolczuk
