Responding to the passing of anti-LGBTI legal amendments to the education law that ban providing education and information about “non-traditional sexual orientation” or “gender identity different from the biological sex” in schools, Nayden Rashkov, Amnesty International Bulgaria’s Director, said:
“These homophobic and transphobic legal amendments will further stigmatize LGBTI people, exposing them to greater discrimination in what is already a hostile environment. Like similar laws passed in Russia, Hungary, Slovakia and Georgia, these amendments will give a green light for further discrimination against LGBTI people in Bulgaria.
These homophobic and transphobic legal amendments will further stigmatize LGBTI people, exposing them to greater discrimination in what is already a hostile environment.
Nayden Rashkov, Amnesty International Bulgaria’s Director
“The amendments are an attack on the entire LGBTI community, blatantly violating the rights of students and teachers to receive and provide education and information and to be protected from discrimination. They not only contravene national law and the Bulgarian Constitution but are also in breach of EU law and regional and international treaties to which Bulgaria is party.
“These retrogressive measures will result in further repression and rights violations against the LGBTI community, and we call on the President not to sign them into law.”
Background
The amendments to the Law for Pre-School and School Education outlaw “propaganda, popularisation and encouragement, directly or indirectly, of ideas and views connected to nontraditional sexual orientation or to gender-identifying different from the biological”. In addition to being blatantly discriminatory, the amendments create legal uncertainty by introducing definitions which do not exist in any regional or international framework (such as “non-traditional sexual orientation”) or lack clear meaning (such as “propaganda”). They do not provide guidance on implementation which inevitably will result in arbitrary application to the detriment of students, teachers and other school personnel as well as NGO representatives providing educational activities at schools.