Billboards in Bulgaria Featuring LGBT Couples were Vandalised

Billboards featuring LGBT+ couples and the slogan "It's not scary, it's just love—Different People, Equal Rights" have sparked controversy in Bulgaria, reports Pink News. 

The street posters were installed this week in various Bulgarian cities as part of a European Commission-funded project by a group of six Bulgarian non-governmental organisations, aimed at tackling homophobia.

They had the side effect of exposing anti-LGBT sentiment in the country.

The billboards featured LGBT+ couples hugging or holding hands in front of iconic Bulgarian buildings such as the National Assembly, the National Palace of Culture and the Ivan Vazov National Theatre.

They were due for display in the main cities in Bulgaria, such as the capital Sofia as well as Burgas, Varna and Plovdiv.

"It is not acceptable to have frank propaganda for homosexual relations."

— Varna city councillor Kostadin Kostadinov

In Varna, one of the posters was covered in paint, as a picture widely shared on social media showed. The company who put up the billboards announced that it would be taking them down following complaints from the public.

Local media reported that some of the complaints were due to the billboards being displayed in the lead up to the Christmas festivities. In other cases, some people complained about the billboards being visible to children and forcing a conversation about LGBT+ rights.

Varna city councillor Kostadin Kostadinov denounced the billboards as "propaganda."

Bulgaria is one of 14 European countries which maintain a constitutional ban on equal marriage, although a Bulgarian court has backed the right of a lesbian married couple to reside in the country for the first time in a landmark...