Lawmakers in Bulgaria have rejected a proposal which would have banned any public discussion or display of LGBTI identity.

The proposal to amend the Bulgarian Criminal Code to make public discussion or expression of homosexuality was even more extreme than Russia’s so-called gay propaganda ban.

Under the proposal put forward by the Bulgarian nationalist Ataka party ‘organizing or participating in events, rallies and parades, or through the media and the internet publicly manifest[ing] their own or of other persons’ homosexual orientation’ would have become a crime punishable with between 1 to 5 years in prison with fines of between around $US2,500 to $US5,000 also imposed.

The proposal was initially rejected last November by a Bulgarian parliamentary committee on human rights.

However despite that it was put on the parliamentary agenda and discussed Wednesday.

Ataka MPs spoke in favor of their proposal – citing religion as why it was necessary.

‘Gay propaganda has reached such levels that it threatens the demographic situation,’ Ataka MP Adrian Asenov said Wednesday, according to Sofia news agency Novinite.

‘What happens if I go for a walk with my children and they see those half-naked buggers with psychotic abnormalities? What about the children’s rights? Don’t they have the right to live in normal families?’