Proposal called for prison terms and fines for being open about sexuality
Bulgarian lawmakers have rejected a proposed amendment to the country's criminal code that would have imposed prison time and hefty fines on people who are openly gay. Credit: wikipedia.org
Bulgarian legislators have thrown out anti-gay legislation that called for imprisonment and fines for people who are openly gay, a Sofia news site reports.
According to novinite.com, a nationalist party introduced the measure, the provisions of which included prison terms of up to five years and fines of between 5,000 and 10,000 Bulgarian levs ($4,000 to $8,000, approximately) for people who organized or participated in public events, or used the media, to “profess” that they are gay.
Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.
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