Big Bulg

Bulgaria’s Culture Minister Can’t Really Decide If He Still Thinks Gays Are The Worst

Bulgaria’s Minister of Culture — you know, the guy in charge of all of their supergay stuff — scrambled to issue a quick disclaimer yesterday after an interview appeared in the January issue of the country’s Biograph magazine, quoting him as being less than a huge fan of the gays.

“I find gays to be the most unpleasant community,” moaned Vezhdi Rashidov in the interview, “since they combine the worst qualities of women and the most despicable qualities of men.”

The Bulgarian interweb lit up after the interview — in which Rashidov shared further gems like “I can’t stand it when a woman looks like a transvestite” — went public, with activists quickly firing off an open letter to Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov calling for Rashidov’s resignation.

Within hours, a clearly indignant Rashidov rushed to backpedal from the interview, which he says was conducted in 2000 when he was merely a private citizen and a famous sculptor.

“I cannot tell you how I feel about gays right now,” Rashidov, um, clarified. “I might have started loving them, I don’t know. At any rate I’ve not thought about that as I do not find it appropriate to interfere in people’s personal lives, especially as a minister.”

“Today I am 60 years old,” he continued. “To me it is offensive to ask that question of a mature man of my age.”

And then came the requisite “some of my best friends are” jargon: “I have a many good friends among this talented group of people. I have great respect for Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon — it’s unfortunate that many people might not know them — Elton John. There are other gays who are great, great, geniuses, like Freddie Mercury.”

And man, while we love Google Translate, sometimes it fails — though sometimes in beautiful ways, as in this lovely parting morsel from Rashidov on what he really thinks of the gays: “Listen, I love it, I love it. People are parting of assholes and smart, proven and unproven, the other is unworthy.”

We couldn’t have said it better in Bulgarian ourselves, Vezhdi.

Photo by Anton Lefterov

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