Together for the LGBTI rights in Bulgaria

The GLAS Foundation took part in the project “Together for LGBTI rights in Bulgaria” which was started in 2018 by the “Workshop for citizens’ initiative” Foundation in association with the Bulgarian Donors Forum, The Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitar Panitsa”, The “Education” Syndicate, part of the Confederation of Labour “Podkrepa”, and the LGBT Youth organization “Deystvie”. The project strives to enhance sensitivity towards the different forms of discrimination and prejudices that LGBTI people regularly face in Bulgaria from teachers, politicians, business leaders, civil society leaders and parents of LGBTI young people.

During the course of the project GLAS started a social media campaign with videos featuring the personal stories of representatives of the different age groups and social groups of the Bulgarian LGBTI community. The online campaign was started just before Sofia Pride on June 9th, and one of its goals was to attract supporters to the largest human rights event for LGBTI people in the country. At the end of 2018 GLAS also began a billboard campaign with same-sex couple embracing one another in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna. In Varna one of the billboards was vandalized and taken down in mid-December of 2018. This provoked a huge public debate on social media, as well in national and local media. The billboard campaign was accompanied by an advertisement in the printed press and public transportation system, and was targeted towards citizens who don’t have a clearly formulated position s to the need for equality for LGBTI people in Bulgaria.

The “Together for LGBTI rights in Bulgaria” e co-financed by the European Union programme “Rights, equality and citizenship”.

The project’s participants include 600 teachers and 600 representatives of civil organizations from 30 cities, as well a total of 200 politicians and business leaders that took part in the specifically constructed informational seminars. The initiative will close with a national conference which will take place in 2019 under the patronage of the ombudsman, and will place focus on the possible subsequent actions in favor of the rights of LGBTI people in Bulgaria.