Bulgaria prohibits propaganda for non-traditional sexual orientation in schools

After more than 4 hours of debate and violent scandals, Bulgaria’s Parliament on August 7 voted to adopt law changes which prohibit propaganda for non-traditional sexual orientation in schools. The proposal for changes to the Law for Pre-School and School Education was tabled by “Vazrazhdane” party. The changes prohibit “propaganda, promotion and encouragement, directly or indirectly, of ideas and views connected to non-traditional sexual orientation or to definition of gender identity different from the biological”. The changes to the law were supported at first and second reading by GERB-UDF, Vazrazhdane, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), There is Such a People, BSP for Bulgaria. Some 20 MPs from “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria” and 2 MPs from GERB-UDF voted against. Ten MPs from WCC-DB and three from GERB-UDF abstained. Here is part of the debate in the chamber: Kostadin Kostadinov – “Vazrazhdane”. We have a problem and it is a big problem. Now we are going to nip it in the bud so that no one, no way, can ever try to do what they do to children in other countries because it is not humane and it is anti-human to promote non-traditional sex education in schools. It is an anti-human ideology. And with this little text in the law we will bury and nip this ideology in the bud.

Yavor Bozhankov, WE Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria: “This bill you are proposing is nothing but pre-electoral populism, ugly homophobia and ugly division in society. Our Parliamentary Group will remain a defender of the parliamentary practice that bills should not be passed in this way. Do not fall victim to the pro-Russian “Vazrazhdane”.

Yordan Tsonev, MRF: “The MRF parliamentary group will support the proposed bill. This is an important part of children’s education and we cannot remain indifferent on this topic. The biggest reason to support it is that a large part of the Bulgarian people share this opinion about the education of our children. We share the motives of those who tabled the proposed change, which is also based on a text from the Constitution, which says that marriage is a voluntary union between a man and a woman. I want to address something else.

Traditional religions are conservative on this topic, because the foundations of the human species are based on the family, marriage between a man and a woman and the continuation of the human species are based on that. And to be clear, there is no place for this type of education in our schools and it has nothing to do with tolerance of the different. Children are something else. They should be left to develop according to God’s laws.”