PROTESTERS rallied outside Bulgaria’s parliament on Thursday evening to denounce a controversial legal amendment adopted the day before that bans talk of LGBTQ+ and so-called non-traditional sexual choices in schools.

The protest was organised by feminist, LGBTQ+ and other rights groups calling for a reversal of that amendment, banning what supporters call “LGBTQ+ propaganda in schools.”

Waving the rainbow flag, the protesters chanted “Bulgaria is no Russia” and “Silence means death.”

Bulgaria’s parliament approved the amendment to the country’s education legislation on Wednesday, introduced by the far-right and pro-Russian Revival party and backed by some pro-European Union parties. The politicians in the 240-seat parliament voted 159 in favour of the change.

The amendment bans the “promotion, popularisation and support of ideas and opinions related to non-traditional sexual orientation or sexual identification other than biological” in schools.

In a separate vote on Wednesday, politicians also approved a law defining “non-traditional sexual orientation” as one that is “different from the generally accepted and established notions in Bulgarian legal tradition of emotional, romantic, sexual or sensual attraction between persons of the opposite sex.”

EU member Bulgaria has been criticised for violating the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and has been urged to guarantee its recognition and protection.

Bulgaria has also declined to ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women, because of widespread belief it means to promote LGBTQ+ rights.

European rights groups, like the Belgium-based Forbidden Colours, condemned the legislation as an assault on the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly children.

“It is deeply troubling to see Bulgaria adopting tactics from Russia’s anti-human rights play book,” the organisation said in a statement on its website.

“Such actions are not only regressive, but are also in direct contradiction to the values of equality and non-discrimination that the European Union stands for.”

Similar anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been passed in Hungary, Bosnia, Moldova and Turkey.