Legal and Historical Overview of LGBTIQ+ Rights in the 19th and 20th Centuries on the Territory of the Republic of Bulgaria

Abstract

The aim of this study is to challenge the stereotypes that non-heterosexual orientation and various gender identities are not manifestations of either a “decadent West” or a passing trend. On the contrary, heterosexism and homophobia intensified and became dominant doctrines during the 19th and 20th centuries, even in societies where same-sex relationships were not initially criminally persecuted. In my legal-historical analysis, I focus not only on the period after the restoration of Bulgarian statehood following the adoption of the First Constitution in 1879 but also on the time before that, when Bulgarian society existed within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat era. An important moment for the analysis is the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships in 1858 in the Ottoman Penal Code. I will also provide examples from the development of Bulgarian criminal law, which often included provisions criminalising sexual contacts between individuals of the same sex.