For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
Virginia Woolf

 

At first Virginia Woolf’s thought made me laugh but very soon did I realize the bitterness it contained. Yes, women were invisible throughout the bigger part of our era. Art for them was a forbidden territory as well as education, job, making a carrier….it is not necessary to list the numerous obstacles the struggle for emancipation went through, and it hasn’t finished yet. What terrifies me is the invisibility behind which women hid in order to do what they loved doing. The same goes for other people – those with a different religion, ethnic background, sexual orientation, etc. Through the different centuries many had to be invisible in order to survive. This continues even today. No matter how strange and sad it is the fact is that organizations such as ours exist in 2010. There are people who still hide the truth about themselves even though what they are or who they are is not a crime. These people live anonymously, in their own world because they have resigned to the fact that if they express themselves they would be a social hindrance, even worse – their families, friends or colleagues would reject them. They might even be physically attacked in the streets. I am not saying – go out and shout out loud who you are. (Well, if you want - do it.) I am saying that one has the right to choose. One has the right to be natural – to express one’s inner self. One has the right to love and to be loved. If someone is forced to be anonymous they are not free. At such an instance our organization, as a part of a movement that fights against homophobia and discrimination of people with a different sexual orientation, becomes involved. Bilitis aims at improving social environment in Bulgaria and do so that we all feel free. We will do our best to break the prejudices against sexuality and gender expression in society and in the LGBT community as well.

 

The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.
Jim Morrison

Maria Dobreva

Executive Director