Bulgaria
Categories Score
The full bar chart stands for 100%, and is filled by the country category score. The colour display uses the traffic light palette, with Green representing a score closer to 100% and Red a score closer to 0%.
ASYLUM
This category looks into laws that expressly include SOGISC as a qualification criteria for seeking asylum. We also take into account other legislation, policies, instruction or positive measures by state actors that are related to asylum addressing the needs and rights of LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees.
Criteria Compliance Ratio
Each pie charts stands for a category and is divided in slices by criteria. When a country complies with a criteria – fully or in some regions – the slice is coloured.
Keep in mind the criteria have different weighting factor within a category; for example, the criteria Prohibition of medical intervention without informed consent (intersex) stands for half (2.5%) of the INTERSEX BODILY INTEGRITY category weighting factor (5%). Meaning that even if a country can only comply with this specific criteria within the category (1/4 total criteria) the category scores 50%.
More information on the categories and criteria weighting factors here.
Category & Criteria Table
The table lists detailed information and insights on legislation supporting each criterion status. Please use the filters for in-depth analysis.
n/a = not applicable, meaning the criteria didn’t exist in the previous Rainbow Map edition (PROGRESSION column)
- Complies
- Applicable in some regions only
- Does not Comply
RECOMMENDATIONS
In order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Bulgaria, ILGA-Europe recommend:
- Adopting registered partnership for same-sex couples and allowing for automatic co-parent recognition for all couples, so that children born to couples, regardless of the partners’ sexual orientation and/or gender identity, do not face any barriers in order to be recognised legally from birth to their parents.
- Introducing hate crime and hate speech laws that explicitly cover all bias-motivated crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.
- Adopting a fair, transparent legal framework based on administrative measures for legal gender recognition based on a process of self-determination and free from abusive requirements (such as sterilisation, GID/medical diagnosis, or surgical/medical intervention).
Annual Review of Bulgaria
In our Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Europe and Central Asia, we examine the advances made and provide concrete examples of on-the-ground situations at national level country-by-country in the 12 months from January to December 2023.
Read our Annual Review of Bulgaria below for more details and stories behind the Rainbow Map. You can also download the Annual Review chapter (.pdf) covering Bulgaria.
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Bilitis’s humanitarian fund continued to support LGBT asylum seekers, including from Ukraine. In 2023, 30 asylum seekers received direct financial support, which represents over half of those who made a request.
Deystvie is currently litigating ten cases of LGBTI Russian asylum seekers.
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The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee’s media monitoring report highlighted the issue of anti-LGBTI content, documenting the use of terms such as “brutal gender fraud”, “locusts of Sodom”, “Brussels obsession with gender ideology”, “revision of biology and normal”, “gender worshipers, defenders of pedophilia”, and others in the media.
Hate speech continued to be common among politicians. In June, civil society called for sanctions on hateful speech in the parliament. During the debate about the new domestic violence law (see under Equality and Non-discrimination), MP Kornelia Ninova (Bulgarian Socialist Party) for instance stated that it was “dangerous” for children to be “poisoned” with information about LGBTI minorities and said “we will never sign and agree to have a third gender in Bulgaria.”
Civil society organisations called for a ban on an annual far- right fascist march, which was held in late February.
The Prosecutor launched an investigation against the far-right extremist party Vazrazhdane, who are known for anti-LGBT, antisemitic, anti-migrant, and anti-Roma rhetoric.
In July, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) condemned the newspaper, “Trud” for featuring an article promoting hatred towards gay people in 2019, affirming that freedom of speech does not protect hate speech.
Deystvie was fined 1,500 EURO as the SAC did not find discrimination in incitement to hate by a far-right rock singer. Deystvie won a lawsuit against the far-right political party VMRO.
The new Criminal Code sanctions hate speech as well (see more under Bias-motivated Violence). Incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation through the media and online is now a crime punishable by one to four years in prison and a fine of 5,000 to 10,000 Leva (2,500 to 5,000 EURO).
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In May, a group of young men assaulted several people to “clean the park of gays”, including minors.
On 10 June, a group of far-right extremists held up hateful banners outside the screening of Close during the Sofia Pride Film Fest and allegedly assaulted a woman. The group then went inside to disrupt the event, took photos of the attendees, called them “paedophiles”, and chanted “LGBT virus”. The event was cancelled. The police were present, but allegedly shook hands and saluted the protesters. Civil society called on Sofia’s mayor to prohibit hateful actions and ensure that future screenings can go ahead with police protection.
On 23 June, a screening of Close was also disrupted by extremists in Varna. The film was screened several times in Bulgaria prior to Pride events.
In the lead-up to Sofia Pride in June, several Pride posters and billboards were vandalised in the capital (see under Freedom of Expression). Fake hand-written banners were also put up across the city, falsely calling for violence on behalf of Pride organisers.
On 10 July, the Sofia Court of Appeals convicted former presidential candidate and neo-fascist party leader Boyan Rasate of hooliganism after storming into the Rainbow Hub in 2021 and punching staff member Gloriya Filipova in the face. The Court of Appeals gave him six months probation.
In a long-awaited move, the parliament amended the Criminal Code on 28 July to sanction hate crimes motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation. Civil society had advocated for this step for many years and welcomed the developments.
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Civil society organisations provided training in educational settings to promote the inclusivity of LGBTI students. Bilitis trained 40 teachers. Single Step trained 20, conducted an international training for 45 people, and hosted a Human LGBTI+ Library.
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Bilitis’s study found that in the last three years 39% of LGBT respondents had difficulty finding a job.
On May 17, Sofia Pride Business Forum took place for the first time, attracting over 60 representatives of different companies.
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The new Law on Protection from Domestic Violence (LPDV), which was in the drafting process for over two years, fails to protect those in a same-sex relationship and anyone who does not live together with their partner.
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In March, the Supreme Court denied Baby Sara the right to a birth certificate and citizenship, despite the CJEU ruling.
On 8 August, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no right to officially register de facto cohabitation in Bulgaria and as no such right exists, couples (both different- and same-gender) should not be allowed to request recognition in court or appeal. The ruling goes against a previous judgement, where a lower court did not recognise the couple’s cohabitation either, but suggested this could possibly be done if they can prove their address is the same, that the contract is on both their names, and a witness supports their plea.
The ECHR ruled in favour of Liliya Babulkova and Darina Koilova and established that Bulgaria must create a legal framework to recognise same-sex relationships.
1,428 same-sex couples were living together in 2021, according to the national census held that year and published in 2023. It was the first time that this information was collected.
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(see more under Bias-motivated violence)
The 16th Sofia Pride, focusing on the theme of family, was held in June and attended by thousands. A day before Pride, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kalin Stoyanov, met with the organisers and assured them of police protection. A parallel counter-demonstration for “Christian family values” was also organised. In the weeks leading up to Pride, several anti-LGBTI incidents took place (see more under Bias-motivated violence).
Sofia Pride also hosted a Human Rights Forum, which gathered over 100 participants, including embassies, representatives of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights, Sofia’s mayor, representatives of the executive, the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office.
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Sofia Pride billboard campaign, featuring both rainbow and traditional families,was formally investigate for “promoting same-sex families as superior”. Two women photographed in the campaign with their children were later summoned to the Ministry of Interior directorate in Sofia. This investigation is ongoing (see under Bias-motivated Violence).
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Two years after the Rainbow Hub was attacked, it secured a long-term home in Sofia this year.
Human rights defender Denitsa Lyubenova was investigated in three different SLAAP cases.
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Due to previously conflicting judgments from the Supreme Court on legal gender recognition (LGR) requirements, the General Assembly of the Civil College (SC) of the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) issued an interpretative decision in late February. The decision stated that as gender is an unchangeable biological factor, legal gender recognition should not be possible in Bulgaria. Civil society expressed deep concern about the ruling which violates international human rights law.
Over the next months, several court judgments seemed to ignore the Assembly’s guidance. The Plovdid district court granted LGR to a trans person, arguing that the person’s right to private life must be protected. Early March, the Supreme Court of Cassation also ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights is the legal basis for LGR in Bulgaria. In May, the Sofia City Court also decided to process a trans person’s LGR case. Civil society has so far concluded that the interpretative decision does not block LGR.
The first book on LGR by Bulgarian authors, a study of the legal practice for the last decade, was published in December.
In November, Gabriela Bankova went on a hunger strike in front of a Sofia’s court. Precendently, she had been refused to have her gender identity recognised in her official documents. The 12-day protest ignited a spark within the trans community to advocate for their rights.
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An openly gay architect is running in the local elections for Sofia municipality.
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A representative study affirmed that public acceptance towards LGBTI people continues to increase, albeit slowly.
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A representative study affirmed that public acceptance towards LGBTI people continues to increase, albeit slowly.
The full Annual Review for 2024 is available here.