Youth LGBTI Organization Deystvie begins work on a project for examining the needs of parents of LGBTI people in Bulgaria and issuing a report and a collection of personal stories entitled The Courage to Be a PARENT
The project is made possible with the financial help of the Embassy of Netherlands in Bulgaria.
‘Support from parents and family is of great importance to young people because they need to be loved and accepted for who they are. For young LGBTI people and their parents, this can sometimes be a challenge. The work Deystvie is doing in this direction is unique and we support it’ said Bea ten Tusscher, Ambassador of Netherlands in Bulgaria.
‘The Courage to Be a PARENT has been a dream of ours for a long time’, shared Veneta Limberova, chairperson of Youth LGBT Organization Deystvie, ‘On the one hand, this is the third book from the Courage to Be series – in 2017, we told the stories of 10 openly LBT women, we are about to print The Courage to Be: The Power of Law, with 10 stories of brave people who share what it is like to fight for your rights in Bulgaria. On the other hand, some of us still remember the time when we came out to our parents during an era of absolutely no resources or information in Bulgarian to support LGBTI youth and their parents. That is why we are excited and cannot wait to start working on gathering, summarizing and sharing the stories of parents of LGBTI people in Bulgaria.’
The Courage to Be a PARENT intends the conduction of 30 anonymous interviews which would give parents of LGBTI people in Bulgaria the opportunity to share their experience, emotions, fears, issues and excitements regarding what it is like to be a parent of an LGBTI person. The interviews are open to all parents of LGBTI people and most of all – for those who are ready to share the necessary ingredients of showing love, acceptance and support to their LGBTI children for who they are.
Collecting anonymous interviews will give a chance to delve deeper into the world of parents of LGBTI people, to categorize and analyze their needs, the challenges they face, with the intention of gaining a better perspective on the biggest hardships and challenges and how they can be overcome.
Parents who feel comfortable to share their story may be invited to be part of the collection of personal stories The Courage to Be a PARENT
If you, or someone you know, want to participate in the interviews, you can contact us at info@deystvie.org. The interviews are completely anonymous, only those who have expressly asked to have their stories shared will be invited to take part in the collection The Courage to Be a PARENT.