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
noneya
hilarious. funny. much better piece than from that Avery guy.
kawneekwa
He a Minister. Whatchu expect?
the crustybastard
Evidently, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture is also tasked with garbage collection.
tim
“since they combine the worst qualities of women and the most despicable qualities of men”
You know that’s true.
Esculapio Mitiríades Torquemada de la Cueva
Is it wrong that I found all this guy’s quotes hilarious?
Katie
“I can’t stand it when a woman looks like a transvestite”
No, Mr Rashidov, other way ’round maybe?
The truth so often is that men like you “can’t stand it when a transvestite looks like a woman” because men who are homophobic, sexist and transphobic tend to be very insecure; both about their own sexuality and masculinity.
greybat
Maybe he should have stuck with art. Not that I’m a big fan of Neoexpressionism!
http://art-exhibitions-berlin.de/english/02pastprojects/07-rashidov.html
ivanka
The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture was hasty to issue an official statement just hours after the interview appeared online, in which the minister deeply appologised for his remarks and claimed that they had been taken out of context and that they had been made in reference to another subject off the record.
However, Bulgarian LGBT organisations such as Deystvie and Sofia Pride issued a statement in which they welcomed the appology but said that they remained unconvinced of its sincerity and adequacy.
Petar
I am Bulgarian and sadly in my country only idiots like this one are elligible to become ministers in the government. Clever people normally emigrate. Not all is bad though. The public outcry at the stupid minister’s remarks was emormous, which means that there is still hope.
Lisa @ sofia airport
Unfortunately there are still many people with similar attitudes in Bulgaria and many of them hold positions of power. as Petar says, the fact that there was such a national outcry does bring hope that times are changing.