The Bulgarian parliament has passed an amendment to the preschool and school education law, which bans the “promotion of ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation.”
The amendment was adopted with 135 deputies voting in favor, 57 against, and 8 abstentions.
The new regulations stem from a survey conducted in schools about the attitudes of students aged 14 to 18 towards LGBT issues. The draft amendment was quickly passed on Wednesday after being introduced in the national parliament.
Under the new law, Bulgarian preschools and schools face a total ban on promoting “in any way ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation or defining a gender identity different from biological sex.”
Members of the nationalist Vazrazhdane party, the leftist BSP, the Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the There Is Such a People party, and part of the center-right GERB party supported the amendment.
The entire center coalition, We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, opposed it. Supporters of the coalition organized a protest outside the parliament on Wednesday evening, arguing that the amendment would hinder efforts to combat bullying of young lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals in schools.
In 2023, the Bulgarian Supreme Court ruled that “changing sex” through judicial proceedings is not permissible under the current legal framework, emphasizing that “gender is recognized at birth and defines a person until death.”
Meanwhile, in another European country, Georgia’s parliament approved in the first reading a package of laws banning LGBT propaganda proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party. The second and third readings are scheduled for the autumn parliamentary session, just before the elections set for Oct. 26.