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Sexuality in Communist Bulgaria”, 16 she claims thatgender equality was just a slogan that reflected theeconomic vision of the socialist movement, and thatpatriarchal values dominated in the vast majority ofBulgarian families.Nowadays, four networks of NGOs, two tradeunions and other important international organisations17 devote themselves to defending women inthe social, political and economic spheres in Bulgaria.Although disagreements persist, they havemanaged to address most issues, such as domesticviolence, labour market gender gaps, trafficking ofwomen, the need for gender parity policies, etc.Perhaps because of a lack of self-confidence,there are only a few activists behind the LGBT movement.Around the country, Markov has countedno more than 20 or 30 activists. This is one of thereasons why Stana Iliev was asked to participatefor the first time in 2010 in the organisation of SofiaPride. At some point in her stay in Bulgaria shedecided to become an activist: “The longer I stayedhere, the more frustrated I became. I couldn’t say Igot angry, but I got, like, annoyed by constantly havingto defend basic human rights.” Despite the factthat she considers Bulgaria “more progressive thanother countries,” she believes there is no awarenessabout gender stereotypes.ConclusionsWomen’s, gender and LGBT rights groups had a lowprofile in the civil society protests of January-February2013 in Bulgaria, in spite of their members’access to ICTs and activism on social networks.The LGBT movement is prominent online. AnalystMonika Pisankaneva confirms that the members ofthis activist community define themselves mostlyas a virtual community. The main reasons for thislie in civil society dynamics, unfavourable social attitudesand the inadequate role of the state.Civil society organisations lack proper engagementwith the rights of gender minorities. AlthoughBulgarian citizens are demanding a change in thepolitical, economic and social systems, the demandsof minorities – including gender minorities– are not listened to or even accepted. But an increasein the number of participants in Sofia Pridehas shown that there is an improvement in this respect,mostly thanks to social media like Facebook.Participants interviewed for this research haveconfirmed that the LGBT rights struggle is very farfrom achieving its goals. Rejection and hate againstthis collective have had a negative influence on theirown self-reliance and self-confidence. A slow processto improve the situation has already started. However,society’s attitudes and behaviour are supportedby the negative speech of political institutions.With regard to women’s rights, Bulgaria’s situationstill needs to improve, even though women arewell positioned in society. Gender think tanks donot appear well connected to activist and civil societyorganisations. Women also do not appear to beaware about gender organisations or feminist concepts.Myths about women and women’s roles maskthe problem: the stigmas and stereotypes related topatriarchal values.State institutions aggravate the situation. Antidiscriminationand parity policies are not applied.In relation to LGBT rights, the actions and languageof political parties and the inactions of law enforcementinstitutions, provide a negative example tosociety. Homophobic attitudes are justified by themajority of the population.Action steps• The state has to commit to implementing policiesto improve social attitudes towards genderand LGBT rights. The perspective that these are“special rights” must be done away with in orderto make these rights normative. Promotingrespect and tolerance is a requisite for empoweringpeople to “come out” or to fight for theirrights.• In this sense, efforts at the educational level – inschools and universities – need to be increased.• The gender movement in Bulgaria is divided andhas lost its main purpose: to involve women intheir actions. A way to tackle this problem couldbe to empower women who are already engagedin protests at the street level. Understandingthe concept of feminism could help them identifythe deeper lack in society and start to battlethis lack.• Both the women’s rights movement and theLGBT movement have to continue improvingtheir use of new ICT tools in order to avoid misunderstanding,to increase public debate and toorganise social struggle. ■16 Pisankaneva, M. (2005) The Forbidden Fruit: Sexuality inCommunist Bulgaria, E-magazine LiterNet, 7(68). liternet.bg/publish14/m_pisankyneva/forbidden.htm17 www.cwsp.bg/en/htmls/page.php?category=12383 / Global Information Society Watch