LGBT rights in Bulgaria

Before the Liberation

Homosexuality was legalized in 1858 in all parts of Ottoman Empire, so Bulgaria as part of it legalized it too. After the Liberation of Bulgaria, homosexuality was recriminalized.

1878–1968

Following the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, the country's own penal code came into force on 1 May 1896, and homosexual acts between males over 16 years of age became punishable by at least 6 months of imprisonment. The Penal Code of 13 March 1951 increased the penalty to up to 3 years in jail. The revised Penal Code of 1 May 1968 removed the sections outlawing homosexual acts.

July 1964 trial

In July 1964, 26 men were arrested and accused of having "perverted homosexual relationships". Some of the arrested were the famous actor Georgi Partsalev & one of the most loved Bulgarian singers Emil Dimitrov. Experts say that the process was a masquerade for the public so that "people will understand how decadent the Western culture is". In the 1960s there were a couple of other similar cases which again involved some of Bulgaria's elite.

Later, in 1966, when revising the Penal Code, a group of experts decided that homosexual acts will no longer be considered a crime, since lesbians and gays "are ill people, who shouldn't be punished because of the sufferings they are already going through (due to their illness)". On 1 May 1968, the new Criminal Code came into force and legalized homosexual acts.

Discrimination protections

Since 2003, the Protection Against Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination & hate speech on the basis of sexual orientation in all areas. In 2015 the parliament passed an amendment to the law that forbids discrimination of people who have changed their gender. In the upcoming revision of the Criminal Code hate crimes against LGBT people will be criminalized.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

Since 1991 the Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, therefore banning same-sex marriage.

In 2012 on the question if gay couples will soon have further rights like the right to marry or adopt children, the former prime minister Boyko Borisov said: "for something [like this] to happen, society needs to become ready for it."

Public opinion

A 2002 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey recorded that 37% of Bulgarians think homosexuality should be accepted by society, but the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey recorded that acceptance had risen to 39%.

A 2006 European Union poll shows 15% of Bulgarians support same-sex marriage, with 65% opposed to it. In 2015 those numbers remained almost the same with 17% supporting same-sex marriage while 68% being against it.

According to a survey carried out in 2007 by the Bulgarian sociological agency Skala 42.4% of Bulgarians would not like having a homosexual friend or colleague. 46% answered that it would be unacceptable if their own child was gay/lesbian. A Eurobarometer survey from 2015 shows that only 9% of Bulgarian parents would accept their child being in a same-sex relationship.

A survey from 2012 shows the number of people who wouldn't like having a homosexual colleague has dropped to 38%. The survey also shows that Bulgarians are more tolerant towards lesbians rather than gay men. 26% of the respondents wouldn't hire a lesbian.

Living conditions

Most of gay life in Bulgaria is primarily set in Sofia. There are gay establishments in Plovdiv, Varna and Blagoevgrad. Outside of the big cities the subject is a taboo and rarely welcomed or admitted to be relevant or real. As this is still a highly controversial subject in Bulgaria, accurate data can not be obtained due to the unwillingness of some or most persons who identify as LGBT to freely affirm themselves as such out of fear of public persecution, scrutiny or harassment.

Transgender and intersex persons in Bulgaria

There is no official data of the Bulgarians who have legally changed their gender. When a person undergoes sex reassignment surgery they must change their passport, driver's license, personal identity document, birth certificate and uniform civil number in order for them to match their new sex. One cannot undergo a surgery unless going to a trial and receiving a positive court's decision. However without undergoing a surgery a person can't change their legal gender in any official document. There are no laws regulating the sex change procedures, which are mostly done by private clinics at very high prices. A recent Eurobarometer survey found that only 29% of Bulgarians agree with the statement that transgender people should be able to change their civil documents in order to match their inner gender identity.

Since 2015 people who have undegone a sex reassignment surgery are protected with an amendment to the 2003 Protection Against Discrimination Act. Transgender people who haven't undergone a surgery could use gender from the list of protected grounds. Gender expression and gender identity are not protected by the revised new Penal Code. From the LGBT group the transgender people are the most marginalized ones. To date many people in the country think transsexual and transvestite are the same thing.

Intersex persons in Bulgaria are even more marginalized and invisible in the society than the transgender community. To date the mass of Bulgarians wrongly use the word hermaphrodite rather than the correct term intersex. There is no data of the number of intersex babies born in the country. The standard procedure in a case of an Intersex child birth is the removal of the male genitalia, due to the fact that it is an easier operation than the one removing the female genitalia. The parents are rarely informed of the damages this could later cause to the child's gender identity. There are no laws concerning intersex.

Pazardzhik case

In November 2009 the district council of Pazardzhik voted in favor of resolution 211, an amendment to the Public Decency Act, forbidding "Public demonstration of sexual or any other orientation." LGBT organizations attacked the decision of the council, saying it was discriminative. In October 2010 the district's Administrative court struck down the resolution, citing procedural errors in its passing. The court's decision was affirmed on appeal by the Supreme Administrative Court in July 2011

LGBT rights organizations

The main LGBT rights organization in Bulgaria is LGBT Action (Bulgarian: ЛГБТ Действие). It was founded in 2010 and today is the main organization protecting the rights of LGBT in the country. It is based in Sofia. LGBT Action also organizes the Sofia Pride & group therapies for LGBT youth.

Bilitis (Bulgarian: Билитис) is the second largest organisation of such type in Bulgaria. Founded in 2004 it protects the rights of lesbian & bisexual women and transgender people. Bilitis has projects around the country.

LGBT Plovdiv (Bulgarian: ЛГБТ Пловдив) is a small LGBT organization based in Plovdiv and the region.

Pride parades

The only pride parade to take place so far in Bulgaria is Sofia Pride. The first parade took place in 2008 and drew about 150 participants, who were attacked with petrol bombs, rocks, and glass bottles. More than 60 hooligans were arrested. The pride parades in the following years went on peacefully and started drawing more participants and the support of political parties and embassies. In 2015 there were more than 1,500 participants, a film program and an art festival.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church strongly opposes any forms of manifestation like pride parades, calling them a "sinful demonstration" and the "sin of Sodomy". Before the 2012 Sofia Pride a priest from Sliven said in a newspaper interview that "gays should be beaten with stones".

Parties such as the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the Greens, Bulgarian Left and DSB have supported the parade organizers' right to hold the pride parade, although in 2014, only the Greens and Bulgarian Left sent statements of support to the parade. Georgi Kadiev, former Bulgarian Socialist Party mayoral candidate for Sofia, participated in support of the pride parade in 2011. Some parties, such as the far-right nationalist Ataka party, strongly oppose the pride parades, protesting against them, as well as homosexuality more broadly.