An alarming intolerance towards other ethnicities and people with a non-traditional sexual orientation, sociologists of the Skala agency found in a research published on December 20 at a seminar in Borovets.

The seminar was organised by the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, mediapool.bg said.

According to the research, most frequent was ethnic discrimination. Alarming was that 68 per cent of those interviewed not only acknowledged its existence, but also accepted it as something normal, researchers said.

Thirty per cent of those interviewed said there was discrimination based on age, 25 per cent identified discrimination against people with disabilities, 23 per cent discrimination based on wealth. While discrimination based on gender, education, religious or sexual orientation was recognised by 16 per cent.

Researchers found that discrimination was accepted as something normal, even by those who were subjected to it.

Ethnic dislike between Turks and Romas was found to be deeper, than between those two groups and ethnic Bulgarians, researchers found.

Thirty-nine per cent of ethnic Turks said they had been discriminated against, while 12.5 per cent reported physical and 17.3 per cent psychological harassment.
The other way around, 37.7 per cent of ethnic Turks would not accept their children marrying with a Bulgaria, while almost 70 per cent would not accept a marriage with a Roma. Of ethnic Turks, 36 per cent did not want to work in the same room with a Roma, 34 per cent said they did not want to be friends with Romas, and 54.6 per cent would not send their children to school with Romas.

Romas were more negative in their attitude towards ethnic Turks than towards Bulgarians, researchers said. Around five per cent of Romas would not send their children to school with Bulgarians, compared to 27.6 per cent who would not send their children to a school with ethnic Turks. More than a quarter of Romas would not accept their children marrying either a Bulgarian or an ethnic Turk.
Just over half of Romas said they had been victims of ethnically motivated discrimination, though 62 per cent said they regularly encountered situations which violated their rights.

While 83 per cent of those interviewed thought that owners of building without easy access for people with disabilities should be sanctioned and 92 per cent said they had nothing against working in the same room with people with disabilities, only 11 per cent would accept a marriage of their child with a person with disabilities without prior arrangements. Twenty-nine per cent said they would not know how to communicate with people with disabilities.

Bulgarian society demonstrated strong homofobia, sociologists said. Almost 80 per cent of Bulgarians had a negative attitude towards homosexuals, while 53 per cent was extremely negative. Only 17 per cent said they would be able to have a free conversation with someone they knew was homosexual. Almost half would not want to work in the same room with a homosexual and around three quarter would not be able to be friends. Seventy per cent would not enrol their children in a school, if they knew one of the teachers was homosexual. Half of Bulgarians would not be able to accept if their child was homosexual, researchers found.

The researchers did not find discrimination on religious grounds, with the exception of the attitude towards the evangelical church, which, researchers said, was more political than religious in character.