On the first day of the conference, a welcoming letter was also received from Justice Minister Georgi Petkanov in which he boasted of a newly reformed legislative and a judicial system which guarantees to all Bulgarian citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation, ethnic or religious affiliation, equal right, security and protection, as Petkanov said. Such statements are popular with Bulgarian politicians. For decades now the Bulgarian citizen has been hearing about his country being a role model for tolerance. The reality, however, is different.
A part of the political requirements for Bulgaria to join the European Union carry particular weight on the democratic development of the country, where the protection of human rights and the integration of vulnerable groups, one of which are homosexuals, is a must. Since 1999, in each European Commission monitoring report for Bulgarias progress in joining the EU, the section Protection and Integration of Minorities has been scoring mostly black points. It is true that criticisms have mainly addressed the ill-treatment of the Roma ethnic minority, as they are the ones suffering most from heavy forms of discrimination. Nonetheless, between the lines of the reports, one can sense the reproaching tone with regards to respect for human rights in general.
During the years of communism, until 1989, words like gay, lesbian and homosexual were taboo. In fact, it is only in recent years that Bulgarians started hearing and seeing more of the gay image. This is mostly due to Bulgarian celebrities openly demonstrating a different sexual orientation. Nowadays, it is quite likely to hear from a friend I dont mind gays, I have lots of friends who are gay. But more often than not, those are just learnt phrases, said almost as if it is fashionable to talk about how tolerant we Bulgarians are towards ethnic, religious or sexual minorities.
But as much as the image of there being homosexual people in the country is becoming more prevalent, one can still very much hear or even receive the insult pedal or pederast, meaning gay. It is exactly the same with regards to insults on ethnic bases. The words tsiganin (a gypsy) and turchin (a Turk), like the word pedal, are also insults, which in the everyday language of some people appear to be an alternative to idiot. This hardly speaks for an open and tolerant, to those who are somewhat different, society.
Nonetheless, it would be wrong to say that Bulgarians are more dense than the rest of our soon-to-be European neighbours, who are generally years ahead with regards to accepting and respecting differences in people. There are a number of rather simple explanations as to why the majority of Bulgarians still sees homosexuals as second-class people, with perhaps the most fundamental being the lack of information.
One of the main tasks of BGO Gemini is to inform the society about gay-related issues and about the rights of homosexuals as equal citizens. However, because NGOs are not state funded, and all costs for projects are covered by sponsors, sometimes funds are by far not enough for an efficient implementation of a project. This year has been particularly hard in this respect, explained Petrova According to her, now that Bulgaria is about to join the EU, it is becoming extremely difficult to receive money from European donors. The reason for popular sponsors like Holland to backtrack, she said, is because the European money is coming in anyway.
On the other hand, to receive sponsorship from Bulgarian private companies for any gay-related projects is almost unthinkable. They are worried about their image. They are worried that they will be called the gay company. They are worried that their clients and partners will distance themselves, and thus the company will lose its business, said Petrova. Perhaps for the same reasons, when President Georgi Purvanov was invited by BGO Gemini to open ILGA-Europes conference, his press officer refused by saying they were concerned about the elections. The conferences opening took place just three days before the second round of elections on October 29.
Furthermore, what does not help discrimination to be reduced is the very fact that the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination (CPD) does not do its job properly. Part of its responsibilities is to organise large-scale campaigns for informing the society about minority-related issues. Instead, the majority of such work is done by NGOs, a fact that which the latest European Commission (EC) report did not forget to mention. The Commission for Protection against Discrimination is still not adequately resourced and not fully operational. It needs to develop a strategic approach to litigation and to become more pro-active in terms of prevention, training and awareness raising activities, the report stated. The inoperativeness, of which the EC report talks, is easily seen when it comes to filed cases of discrimination. By law, the CPD is supposed to resolve a legal case within two months. At the moment, BGO Gemini is still waiting for a decision about a case filed last November concerning a woman who was discriminated against at her workplace because of her sexual orientation. As a result, Petrova said, people have lost faith in the institution. They dont believe that their rights will be truly defended, and thus the majority of people dont go further than to share with us their story.
Quite right. How will people not be put off from taking serious actions in fighting discrimination if they are aware of how inefficient the institutions supposed to apply the law are? What is more, the fact that a much needed Anti-Discrimination Act was passed as late as 2004 gives grounds to believe in a long-existing lack of political readiness to acknowledge: that minorities do exist, that they suffer from discrimination in all spheres of life, and that they need protection in the face of the law.
The bottom line is that until the institutions start taking their job and the law itself seriously, Bulgarians will be stuck with the all-negative image of gay people appearing on Big Brother.
Some facts regarding same-sex marriage and parenting in Bulgaria:
The Bulgarian constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and woman, by which it directly excludes the possibility of marriage between couples of the same sex.
There are no political trends towards adopting any changes in partnership/family law towards legal recognition of same-sex partnerships. Same-sex partners are not allowed to legalise their relationships, have no patrimonial rights or the right to adopt children and no right for hospital visitation of their partner.
Artificial insemination is available in some clinics in Bulgaria. However, it is usually accessible only to married heterosexual women. Ministry of Health Regulation 12 from 1987 sets out that women can be inseminated with seed from their husbands or from a third person only if the husband's seed is not fertile.
