The Bulgarian Orthodox Church implicitly backs calls for violence against Gay Pride

June 18, 2012, Sofia, Bulgaria – The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has silently endorsed violence against the LGBT Pride March in Sofia after a priest from the provincial town of Sliven called for the stoning of participants.

In an interview published two weeks ago, Father Evgeni Yanakiev stated: “Our whole society must in every possible way oppose the gay parade that is being planned. For this reason today I appeal to all those who consider themselves Christians and Bulgarians. Throwing stones at gays is an appropriate way.”

Father Evgeni says that he cannot remain indifferent if someone is debauching children. He also suggested that mayors and ministers who allow gay pride marches should be “thrown in the deepest part of the sea with a millstone hung from their necks”, referring to the New Testament text, Matthew 18:6.

On Monday, June 11^th, the organizing committee of the fifth annual Sofia Pride Parade – the largest human rights event in Bulgaria – issued an open letter to the Holy Synod, the highest authority in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, asking the archbishops to withdraw any calls for violence from the Church.

The following Wednesday the Holy Synod issued a statement that does not address the calls to violence but confirms the Church’s firm opposition to such “immoral manifestations,” and its immutable conviction that homosexuality is “an unnatural lust which unconditionally harms both the personality of those who commit it and the society as a whole”.

The archbishops ask all parents and teachers to keep children away from even seeing the parade in order to protect them from seduction.

Today (June 18^th) the organizing committee of Sofia Pride issued an official statement saying that calls for violence are not democratic, moral, or Christian values, but are unbearably misanthropic concepts that push Bulgarian society towards hatred, crime, and regression. They point out that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, as well as other religious denominations in Bulgaria, receives subsidies from the state budget which for 2012 is 847 000 Euro ($ 1 070 000), and that this money comes in part from taxpayers who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens of Bulgaria. The organizers also noted that the police will be responsible for the Pride parade’s safety.

The first LGBT Pride in Bulgaria in 2008 met with violent attacks from right-wing extremist groups and football hooligans. Three volunteers of Sofia Pride were attacked and beaten in 2011 after Pride. Up until now the police have made no progress with their investigation into these events.

A newly drafted law, expected to be submitted to Parliament this fall, recognizes hate crimes on the grounds of sexual orientation, but at the same time defines sexual abuse of minors by adults of the same sex as “homosexual acts.”