Homophobic Nationalists Disrupt Bulgarian LGBT Events

Sofia Pride parade in the Bulgarian capital in June 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

The men appeared to be connected with the far-right Bulgarian National Union party and Lukovmarch, an annual event in commemoration of WWII general Hristo Lukov, often criticised for providing a forum for neo-Nazis to gather.

Police were called and the film, 'Eggshells' by director Slava Doytcheva, was eventually screened at The Steps, a venue recently opened by the Single Step Foundation, which supports the local LGBT community.

"Yes, this was another attack on an event hosted by the society, another attempt at a physical threat to make us to step back and cancel the screening. But the screening took place," GLAS Foundation, the co-organisers of the event, said in a statement on Monday.

"There's a need for an appropriate reaction from law enforcement and those in power, who through their inaction have validated such incidents," it added.

The incident follows other disruptions of LGBT events this month, all possibly connected to far-right organisations.

"I see these organised assaults as part of the noise around the forthcoming elections," said Ivan Dimov of Single Step Foundation.

Like Dimov, a lot of activists also see the recent incidents as organised by nationalist parties which want to gain credibility for the July 11 elections, which follow the inconclusive polls on April 4, when all far-right parties failed to surmount the 4 per cent threshold to get parliamentary seats.

On May 26, a discussion event at The Steps around popular children's book 'Mravin and Planet Forest', a same-sex love story set in a fairytale world, was also interrupted by nationalist groups who defaced the venue's windows.

"Some of the people from...