Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Canada

BULGARIA

Parliament rushed through passage of a Russia-style “LGBT propaganda” law Aug. 7 in a marathon session that was marked by speeches that queer activists have denounced as bordering on hate speech, and that sparked protests around the capital.

The vaguely worded law bans “propaganda, popularization and encouragement, directly or indirectly, of ideas and views connected to nontraditional sexual orientation or to gender-identifying different from the biological,” in Bulgarian schools. The law does not prescribe any specific punishment for infractions. 

The bill was introduced by the Revival Party, which maintains strong ties to Russia’s government, but passed with surprising support from the pro-European Union center-right GERB party. Altogether, 159 MPs voted for the bill, while only 57 voted against it, mostly from the reformist We Continue the Change Party.

Bulgaria is currently without an elected government, as June national elections yielded a hung parliament. Fresh elections are scheduled for Oct. 20 — Bulgaria’s fifth election in three years. Parties are likely using the threat of “LGBT propaganda” to shore up votes.

Nevertheless, the passage of the law sparked protests from queer, women, and human rights groups around the capital, Sofia, calling on President Rumen Radev to veto the law.

“This is the first step in making non-traditional sexual orientation a crime. I consider this absolutely unacceptable and out of the spirit of what we strive to be as a country and society,” Ivan Ivanov, a protestor at the Aug. 7 rally, told Euronews.

Anti-LGBTQ “propaganda” laws have been spreading since Russia passed its law in 2013. Hungary and Lithuania have laws restricting LGBTQ speech in schools or around children, but Bulgaria is the first EU country to pass such a law since the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Lithuania’s law breached the European Convention in January 2023. 

Other countries considering such laws right now are Georgia and Kazakhstan. Several African states have also recently passed or are considering laws criminalizing promotion of LGBTQ rights, including Uganda, Ghana, Namibia, and Liberia. Increasingly, similar laws are also being passed in Republican-led U.S. states.

AUSTRIA

Local organizers Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour cancelled three dates in Vienna after authorities arrested two suspected extremists on charges that they planned to attack a concert. 

Swift had been scheduled to play at the Ernst Happel Stadium on Aug. 9, 10, and 11. 

Authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old main suspect in Ternitz, about 50 miles south of Vienna, and a second 17-year-old suspect in the capital. 

Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of Austria’s Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, says the 19-year-old had been radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State, and that they had found material related to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda at the home of the 17-year-old. 

Haijawi-Pirchner says that the suspect was employed by a company providing services at the concerts and was planning to use knives or self-made explosives to “kill as many people as possible” at the concert.

Initially, promoters said the concerts would go ahead with extra security provided by the national police, but the dates were quickly cancelled hours later. 

Promoters Barracuda Music said all tickets would be automatically refunded within 10 business days.

The concert dates had been sold out for months, with an estimated 170,000 people expected to attend.

This isn’t the first time an Islamic extremist has allegedly targeted a pop concert. In 2017, an extremist suicide-bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 people and wounding more than 100. 

CANADA

The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from alt-right figure Jordan Peterson of the decision by the College of Psychologists of Ontario requiring him to undergo social media training or risk losing his license to practice. 

Peterson, who rose to international prominence for his strident opposition to a transgender rights bill passed by the Canadian government in 2017, has become a darling of the alt-right movement for his writings and social media posts advancing frequently misogynistic and transphobic views on women, masculinity, and gender identity, as well as general antipathy to other left-wing issues.

In 2022, the College of Psychologists found that his posts may be “degrading” and call into question his ability as a psychologist and bring the profession disrepute. It ordered he undergo social media training. 

Peterson sought judicial review, but he lost at lower courts. The Supreme Court did not give reasons why it dismissed the appeal. Peterson was ordered to pay costs.

Initially, Peterson said he would continue to fight the order, somehow, but days later his lawyer had told CBC that Peterson would attend the training.

The case has divided rights groups in Canada, with the LGBTQ advocacy group Egale intervening on behalf of the College of Psychologists of Ontario, while the Canadian Civil Liberties Union intervened on behalf of Peterson, arguing that professional associations shouldn’t regulate speech unrelated to the profession. 

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who has also courted the alt-right and far right in Canada, also posted in support of Peterson. 

“Another government bureaucracy threatens to ban a Canadian from practicing his profession because he expressed political opinions the state doesn’t like,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The College of Psychologists of Ontario is not a government bureaucracy. It is a professional association.

BELGIUM

Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo spoke out against transphobia in an open letter after the current deputy prime minister raised alarms this week by recommending a transphobic book on his social media channels.

Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval of the center-right Reformist Movement was accused of transphobia after he posted on X praise of the book “Transmania: Investigation into the Excesses of Transgender Ideology” by Marguerite Stern and Dora Moutot.

The book, originally published in France, is full of conjectures and conspiracy theories asserting that trans people aren’t real and that they are associated with pedophilia. It has become a symbol of the far right in France since it was published in April 2023.

Clarinval defended his post to the Brussels Times. 

“This book gives a broader view of the transgender issue,” he said.

Di Rupo, who was Belgium’s first openly gay prime minister and now serves as a member of the European Parliament, wrote an open letter calling for conservatives and liberals to agree to protect all people’s rights in the wake of the controversy. 

“In this reactionary climate, it is essential to emphasize that the freedoms granted to transgender people in no way diminish the freedoms of other citizens. The extension of rights and freedoms to some never diminishes those of others,” Di Rupo writes.

“Finally, it is important to remember that the freedoms we enjoy today are the fruit of fierce struggles, countless political battles and incalculable human tragedies. They are indeed heroic struggles, often marked by great suffering and sacrifice, that have shaped the free world in which we live in the West. Whether it is the fights for civil rights in the United States, for gender equality, for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people or for freedom of expression, they have all been driven by the same unwavering will: That of defending the dignity, freedom and respect of the human being in all its complexity.”