Mësuesit në Bullgari thonë se po kërcënohen pasi kundërshtuan ligjin kundër “propagandës LGBT” në shkolla

Teachers in Bulgaria say they are facing threats after signing a petition against a recently passed law banning “LGBT propaganda” in schools.

They blame the far-right Party Resurgence, which was the initiator of the controversial law that has been heavily criticised.

The leader of the Revival Party, Kostadin Kostadinov, said on August 22 that he would submit a report to the prosecutor’s office for teachers who have opposed the law.

The law, passed on August 7 in parliament with the support of pro-European parties, sparked protests in Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria.

The amendment to bulgaria’s education code law prohibits the “propaganda, promotion or promotion of LGBT ideas and attitudes” in schools. He gives no other explanations.

The pro-Western reformist Coalition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) still hopes to secure support in the National Assembly to repeal this law.

Critics say the law is almost identical to Russia’s anti-LGBT law, which was passed in 2012, and Hungarian anti-LGBT law, passed in 2021. These laws in Russia and Hungary have been deemed to be contrary to world and European standards by various international organizations and institutions.

Bulgaria is one of the few European Union countries that do not grant equal social rights to gay and heterosexual people. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg forced Bulgaria to establish a legal framework for recognition of same-sex relations. Sofia has yet to meet this obligation.

The LGBT community and their supporters in Bulgaria often face verbal and physical threats and attacks.

About 460 teachers and other specialists in the field of education signed a petition calling for the abolition of the amended law. About 20 teachers from the Black Sea resort of Varna said they had been targeted by the local branch of the Renaissance party, including on Facebook.

Martin Stoyanov, a school psychologist in Varna, said a teacher in the Black Sea city had contacted him on Viber late one night, expressing fear of the latest threats.

“We are becoming a country where it is dangerous to express your opinion,” Stoyanov told Radio Free Europe’s Bulgarian Service.

The Facebook post on August 21 on the account linked to the Rilindja party branch in Varna, included a “blacklist” of local educators who had signed the petition – including Stoyanov – against the newly changed law, referring to them as “parasites.”

A day later, Kostadinov, a controversial figure and pro-Kremlin disinformation spreader, said he would hand over to the prosecution about 800 teachers he claimed were “criminals” who “want to push gay propaganda forward.”

The threatened teachers in Varna have received a lot of support.

The mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, expressed his support in a Facebook post on August 22, urging them to be brave and contact him personally if threatened.

Pavel Popov, the deputy mayor of Varna municipality, who is also responsible for educational issues, told Radio Free Europe that the Revival Party is calling for “oppressive actions against Bulgarian teachers”.