On Sunday, September 27, 2020, a group of 14-15-year-old students from Plovdiv organized and carried out a violent attack on other youngsters because of their perceived homosexual orientation (see Bulgarian media news coverage: https://www.dnevnik.bg/4120077).

The boys' goal was to "clean up the city garden" in Plovdiv of boys and girls with the "wrong" sexual orientation.

Several girls were viciously harassed, insulted, thrown eggs at, spat on, and finally beaten because of their appearance. A video has been published on Instagram, documenting the homophobic insults.

Today, the victims report that their parents are afraid to let them go to school.

This incident happened at a significant moment - days before the anniversary of the homophobic murder of Mihail Stoyanov, a medical student, killed in 2008 in Borisova Gradina Park in Sofia. The perpetrators had the same motive: to clean up the park from gays.

As in the present case, Stoyanov's attackers found that the alleged homosexual orientation of the people attacking the park justified their actions.

This is a direct result of growing prejudice and rejection of diversity in Bulgaria and the normalization of hate speech in public life.

More events like this are being planned on Instagram by a group of minors in the cities of Burgas and Sofia on Saturday, October 3, 2020.