Amid Scandal, Bulgarian Culture Min Says He Likes Many Gays

Bulgarian Minister of Culture Vezhdi Rashidov has said he has no opinion of gays as a group, but personally likes many gay persons, in an attempt to dispel a scandal created by an interview of his.

Thursday the Bulgarian Biograph magazine published an interview with Rashidov in which he bashed gays in general, and also expressed a low esteem of women.

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

In addition the Bulgarian Culture Minister, by profession a sculptor, said that women were of no interest to him whatsoever as a subject of art.

Hours after that, Bulgarian social networks buzzed in indignation and a group of net activists have already sent an open letter to Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov to request Rashidov's resignation.

Asked to comment on the incident, Minister Rashidov has said that the interview was made back in 2000, when he was not a government official but a "free man."

He also expressed discontent that the interview had allegedly been published in a book some time ago, but it is only now tendentiously used against him.

"I cannot tell you how I feel about gays right now. 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 mess in people's personal lives, especially as a minister," commented Rashidov.

On the other hand, he made a special case to state he has gay friends and admires the works of many gay artists.

"There are many open gays who are titans, genii. We have Bulgarian singer Vasil Naydenov. Or the great Freddie Mercury. In the art world I've been friends with people like Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol," recounted the Bulgarian Minister of Culture.

Rashidov further expressed indignation at the fuss made from the case: "I've recently turned 60. It's insulting that such matters should be discussed among grownups my age."

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