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The Supreme Court of Cassation ruled trans people can change their name and gender marker on official documents, closing a nearly ten-year legal battle and putting Bulgaria in line with an EU court ruling from March.
Weeks after a gay man was beaten to death on Plovdiv's Youth Hill, police and security services detained 18 people linked to an alleged cell of the international neo-Nazi group Blood & Honour — as protesters demand tougher penalties for juvenile offenders.
Prosecutors say a 17-year-old used a fake dating profile to lure Georgi Kuzev, 31, to a park where a group of teens beat him to death. Bulgarian authorities are investigating a hate crime motive.
The Supreme Court of Cassation approved gender marker changes for four transgender Bulgarians last month, ending a six-year freeze forced open by an EU court ruling in March.
A man in his 30s died after reportedly being lured to a meeting via a dating app and beaten near a tourist landmark in Bulgaria's second city. Police are investigating whether the attack was motivated by homophobia.
We lived in Sofia twice in 2023 — once for a week, once for most of a summer. Here's what it actually costs, where it's easy, and where Bulgaria's politics make themselves felt.
An EU member state that banned 'LGBT propaganda' in schools, refuses to recognize same-sex couples, and won't let trans people change their documents. Bulgaria is one of the hardest places to be openly queer in the Union — and one of the most overlooked.
As Sofia Pride struggles with collapsing corporate funding, Bulgaria's governing party has thrown its weight behind a competing 'March of the Family' on the same day — a state-aligned counter-mobilization that says a lot about where the country is heading.
After 17 straight years of US Embassy support, Sofia Pride 2026 went ahead with a slashed budget, fleeing corporate donors, and a 'March of the Family' blessed by the ruling party. The story of one Balkan Pride is a preview of what happens when American soft power exits the field.
Romania and Bulgaria sit dead last on the EU's Rainbow Map, yet roughly 30,000 marched in Bucharest and thousands more in Sofia this weekend — a louder answer than the Orthodox Church and the nationalist counter-marchers expected.
Dara's 'Bangaranga' gave Bulgaria its first-ever Eurovision win on Saturday in Vienna. The 2027 contest will head to Sofia — a city in a country ranked 40th of 49 on Europe's Rainbow Map and where an anti-LGBT 'propaganda' law is still on the books.
The CJEU's March 11 ruling told three EU member states they must offer legal gender recognition to nationals who have exercised free movement. Sixty days on, Sofia has reopened cases but passed no law. Budapest and Bratislava are openly defying the judgment.
Sofia Pride organisers have confirmed June 13 for the 2026 march, the country's biggest LGBTQ+ event of the year, returning amid an active 'propaganda' law in schools and an ongoing far-right counter-mobilisation. Here's what to expect.
Sofia is one of the most underrated capitals in Eastern Europe — and one of the more complicated places to be visibly queer in the Balkans. Here's what we learned from living there.
