From The Sofia Echo

Villagers with pitchforks, etc., etc., etc.

Opinion

My Bulgaria: Gays on TV
10:00 Fri 23 Jan 2009 - Petar Kostadinov


Waking up a few days ago, the TV on as usual, I was going through the Bulgarian television morning shows when I heard something that grabbed my attention. The studio presenter said: “And now we go to our correspondent in the village of X to tell us the story of how a gay couple who decided to settle there was chased away by the villagers who did not want to have gay people there.”

Hey, I thought, this is something new. It got even better: “The partners are a Bulgarian and an Icelandic national.” Hmm, a foreigner involved, I thought, what could be more interesting. I immediately started drawing pictures in my head of how the gay couple arrived in the remote village and started scandalising the locals, only to get a fist in the face and a kick in the back. There have been plenty of movies with such a plot.

The TV presenter obviously had the same idea, because she was very eager to get to the angry villagers and ask them questions about the “gay couple”.
So was the correspondent sent to investigate this case of intolerance. TV cameras showed the correspondent surrounded by a group of people, mostly young, quietly standing there, not holding any swastikas or pitchforks.

The TV presenter asked the first question: “Are these the first gay people in your village?”
The answer was simple. “Yes, we have never had gays before, but we have nothing against them and we don’t mind if they stay because I don’t care what they want to do or how.”

The presenter was obviously disappointed, because this answer did not fit the way the story had been presented.
“But have you had problems with the gay couple?” she said. “No, not a single problem,” came the reply. “We think that the golf course will be good for the village.”

Golf course? What golf course, I thought.
It turns out that the couple had bought a house in the village a few years ago and this past summer decided to explore opportunities for building a golf course in the area and advertising it in Iceland. The Bulgarian partner was on the phone from Iceland, confirming the information and saying that the couple was, in fact, living in Iceland full-time and that they simply had property in the village and did not really live there.

"We have never been called names by the villagers,” he said, disappointing the TV presenter even more. The correspondent in the village, however, decided to justify the expenses of being sent there and turned to a young girl. “So, how did you live with the gay couple? Were you friends?”
“No, we weren’t. We actually had problems and did not understand each other well.”

This certainly grabbed the correspondent’s attention. “What do you mean, you did not have a good understanding with the couple?”
“Well, I don’t speak English and that’s why I could not talk to the foreign guy,” the girl said.
The correspondent would not give up. “But if you had to vote for the Bulgarian partner in the gay couple as mayor, would you choose him? “Yes, sure, why not?”
The TV presenter then ran out of time and terminated the live broadcast.