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What can bring together for 4 hours representatives of a lesbian organization and a gay nudist club?
The answer came from the results of the partner meeting of
LGBT organization and their partners from the
mass media, which was organized by
Queer-Bulgaria on 21.04.2004. For the first time, partners of very different groups of interests of lesbians and gays made a successful dialog and came up with common purposes, as in the meanwhile they showed willingness to help each other. The formation of different official and nonofficial organizations of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals is relatively new phenomenon in the Bulgarian society. Not so long ago, the only nongovernmental organization dealing with the problems of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals in Bulgaria was BGO
“Gemini”. It is questionable how effective its work was, but it helped a lot for the bringing of the question for the rights of people with homosexual orientation ahead in public space and mass media. To what extent, though, the problem for discrimination on a sexual base turned out to be uniting and interesting for all groups of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals? The members of
“Gemini” have been reducing their number ever since 2001, in spite of the presence of finances for organizational building and popularization of the organization’s activities. In the same time the rising number of lesbians, gays, transsexuals, which don’t hide themselves, but don’t find themselves in
“Gemini” and don’t look for a contact with the organization.
During the last few years the developing Bulgarian mass culture has opened doors to the different sexual identities, but in the society faced of nongovernmental organizations has encountered a gap. The tolerance of the mass media towards different sexual identity has been enlarged as well as the number of clips and TV shows, which show different aspects of the life of homosexuals and transsexuals in Bulgaria. To a certain extent the media was far in front the citizen organizations in the popularization of different sexual identities, despite quite often in a wrong way. The night life in the biggest Bulgarian cities slowly rejected the self isolation of gays and lesbian in special clubs and mixed clubs are now modern. The pop culture confidently. Writing about this, the emergence of organizations which variety of offers is not limit to protection of the rights and prevention of sexual diseases, became a necessity. The idea for the creation of a net of different organizations, representing the interests of diverse groups of lesbian, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals is a new stage in the development of
LGBT in Bulgaria. It was thought quite recently that all homosexuals and transsexuals have to unite in only one nongovernmental organization in order to protect their rights. It is possible that if there was an open discrimination on the base of sexual identity and violence against homosexuals and transsexuals, this unity could be performed. The situation though is different: hidden in most cases unspoken discrimination and relatively rare cases of violence against lesbians, gays and transsexuals (compared to much more liberal countries in Western Europe). In such a situation the sexual identity cannot turn into a leading reason for unity of lesbians and gays. The unity is more likely formed based on similar interests, as the protection of the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals is one of the diverse purposes the activists are facing. The comparison with the first organization -
“Gemini” – and the search for a new approach towards the people, the mass media and society is another characteristic of the new vogue in
LGBT organization. Almost all leaders of the new LGBT organizations are former or present members of
Gemini. The separation of the organization mother can be explained more as a need of individual approach to the diverse
LGBT groups, than as an unwillingness to cooperate. Cooperation, combined with preservation of individuality of each group, and not merging of the differences with an aim of building one organization – this is the new understanding of the
LGBT organization in Bulgaria. Of course, Gemini, has its own place - as one of the many
LGBT organizations which has to specialize in a concrete area for offering services to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals, in order her work to be efficient. The new actors on the stage of
LGBT organization include several official and nonofficial organizations. Those are the
Resource center of lesbians and bisexuals women “Bilitis”; gay sport club “Tangra”; club for a gay naturalism and sport “Delfin”; endowment
Queer-Bulgaria. Queer-Bulgaria is facing the hard work of coordinating activities and interacting between all
LGBT organizations, including BGO Gemini. The participants in the first meeting, organized by
Queer-Bulgaria, have come to a decision to unite all newly formed
LGBT organizations to the net and to be open to differences in the area of their groups. The first step in the building of a strong and diverse
LGBT organization in Bulgaria is already done. The successes and the challenges are in the front. The only thing we can be sure about is that there is no way back and the organizations, which stay out of the net will isolate themselves from information interchange and possibilities for combined actions concerning questions for all
LGBT groups. April
2004ă.
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