About
The thing we needed and could not find
bulgayria is not an organisation, not a campaign, and not somebody’s grant project. It is the site that would have saved us a few very lonely years — so we built it.
It took me the better part of a year to work out what PrEP even was, and where to get it in Bulgaria.
It took longer still to learn something that now sounds outrageously simple: on successful treatment the virus becomes undetectable, and HIV is not passed on sexually. Someone taking their medication does not infect their partner. And life simply carries on — work, love, dinner, boredom, all of it.
The information existed. The problem was that it sat scattered across sites that load slowly, read like a grant report, and never say the important part in plain language.
Nobody told me. I had to dig it out myself, piece by piece, while being afraid to ask out loud.
That is why bulgayria exists. Not because we know more than doctors, but because somebody had to sit down and write it in plain language.
What we promise
Five things that are not going to change.
We invent nothing
Every fact here comes from a source, and the source is named. If we could not verify something, we say so plainly instead of papering over it. A blank space beats a convenient lie.
No tracking. Ever.
No cookies, no analytics, no ads, not a single request to a third-party server. Nobody can demand your data from us, because there is none.
Bulgarian first
Bulgarian is the language we think and write in. English is a translation, not the other way round — if the two ever disagree, the Bulgarian is what we meant.
Fast on a bad phone
The site has to open on a seven-year-old Android with one bar of signal. So it is light, static, and most of it works even with JavaScript switched off.
Free forever
No payment, no sign-up, no mailing list, no “premium”. We will not even ask your name.
What we cover — and what we don’t
It is fairer to say this up front than to let you discover it three pages in.
bulgayria is about the lives and health of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. That is the subject we know well enough to write about responsibly.
What you will find here
- Mental health — coming out, shame, loneliness, a family that does not understand, and how to find a therapist.
- Sexual health — sexually transmitted infections, testing, condoms and lube, consent.
- HIV and PrEP — what it is, where to get it in Bulgaria, what “undetectable = untransmittable” means.
- Your rights — what Bulgarian law says, what it does not, and how to file a discrimination complaint.
- Organisations — who actually does what, without the marketing.
What you will not find here
- Hormone protocols and gender-transition guidance. That is medical ground and it is not ours — there are places that handle it far better than we could.
- Individual medical advice. We are not a medical institution, and nothing here replaces seeing a doctor.
- Party politics. We do not back a party and we do not run campaigns.
Everyone who arrives here is treated with dignity — no exceptions. If you are looking for something we do not cover, that is not a verdict on you; it is the edge of what we are competent at. We would rather point you somewhere better than hand you half an answer on a subject we have not mastered.
How to help
Three things, each worth more than it sounds.
Spotted an error? Tell us.
An old price, a moved address, an organisation that no longer exists, a clumsy sentence — all of it matters. Open an issue on GitHub; you do not need to be a programmer.
Email us(opens in a new tab)Translate
The English version always lags behind the Bulgarian. If you fancy translating, email us and we will send you the text.
Email us(opens in a new tab)Tell one person
The most useful thing on this list. One person who is going to need it. They may never thank you for it — but they will read it.
Who is behind this
A few people and a great deal of stubbornness. No office, no board, no communications department.
bulgayria is not an NGO and does not live off grants. Nobody funds us and nobody reports activity to a donor — which is exactly why we can be blunt, and say “we don’t know” when we don’t.
All of the code is public. If something looks wrong, go and look, then tell us.
Email us(opens in a new tab)