Bulgarian court’s ruling allows public insults to be made against LGBTQ+ people

The Bulgarian Supreme Court acquitted Bulgarian punk star Milena Slavova after being accused of discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community with offensive comments against the Pride Parade in Sofia.

Two people and an LGBTQ+ organisation filed a discrimination case against the singer for her post on Facebook, which stated, “I am sure that I do not support gay parades! Poor us – normal people- are already suffocating from the brazenness and flaunting of various perverts. And I don’t apologise for my words.”

The post went viral on social media, and Slavova’s position was actively used in the propaganda channels of extreme nationalists, homophobes, pro-Russian groups and Eurosceptics.

The complaint against the punk singer was filed by two LGBTQ+ activists from the organisation Deistvie (Action). Before that, the EU Commission for Protection against Discrimination declared that her words were a manifestation of a personal opinion to which she is entitled.

The three supreme magistrates decided that Slavova’s overall behaviour demonstrated no hidden meaning of denying the right to self-determination of some of the participants in gay parades.

According to the judges, this is clearly not intended to harm the dignity of a particular person because of their sexual orientation.

According to the court, Slavova does not have official public authority, nor does she seek to acquire one, which would allow her to impose her opinion on the regulation of public relations, including holding gay parades.

In the last four years, the public debate in Bulgaria has been flooded by a conservative wave fueled by misinformation on social networks. The process began with rejecting the Istanbul Convention in 2019 by a very controversial decision of the Constitutional Court. Several decisions by the Bulgarian courts followed, including ending any possibility of changing personal documents after gender reassignment surgery.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)