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Many of the learning books used in Bulgaria’s high schools instil intolerance towards homosexuality into students, representatives of the Bulgarian gay organization Gemini said.
Many of the learning books used in Bulgaria’s high schools instil intolerance towards homosexuality into students, representatives of the Bulgarian gay organization Gemini said.
Their statement is based on a thorough analysis of the textbooks used in schools. The organization is now preparing a list of recommendations for the Education Ministry, suggesting that homosexual topics should appear on the pages of the philosophy and psychology textbooks. Bulgarian students read with huge interest about the love relationships of the poet Peyo Yavorov with his lover Mina and his wife Laura, but for some reason the books keep silent on the homosexual affairs of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Hans Christian Andersen and Federico Garcia Lorca, the CEO of Gemini Aksinia Gencheva said. The students would not understand Yavorov’s works and personality if they were not acquainted with his heterosexual love to the two women and the same applies to the gay authors, Gencheva believes. The homosexual experience of Lord Byron, Shakespeare or Sigmund Freud is omitted on purpose in the books as it is seen as immoral, twisted and scandalous, according to Gencheva.
The psychology learning book used in schools represents love in its heterosexual aspect only and not a word is mention for its homosexual side, breeding an impression into students that there is no such this as being gay or lesbian and such people do not exist. Gemini are set to make the Ministry and the teachers understand that the omission of homosexuality as a human relations phenomenon is discrimination.
It's really kind of Ms.Gencheva to put the name of Peyo Yavorov next to names such as Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Hans Christian Andersen. But her point is really difficult to grasp. First she is complaining about the philosophy and psychology textbooks and then she starts giving examples in the sphere of Bulgarian and Foreign Literature. Now let's make it clear: these two subjects are studied in different school years and no parallel is ever made either for the qualities of the works, or for the sexual orientation of BG vs. foreign authors - and who would want to do such a thing anyway? This is literature for god's sake!. If she is to approach the Ministry of Education, I'd advise her to reconsider her arguments and to decide which textbooks she would like to be updated.
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήAnd last but not least, people in Bulgaria are far from being homophobic - we have our music/TV star Azis to prove it. Cheers!