Don't get me wrong, Bucharest and Sofia are rather LGBT friendly as long as you know where you're safe. (I've only visited both for a couple of days on a number of occasions). I can't speak about other cities but the Orthodox Church is really strong in Romania. Bulgaria on the other hand has soccer extremists/fascists who are particularly dangerous and tend to mob on their targets so it's hard to even find the culprits by the authorities... Not that they even bother unless it's a murder.

In fact I had a mob of Bulgarian hooligans in Bucharest of all places yelling "Look dude Rapunzel!" pointing at me (I present masculine but have rather long hair). I felt realy threatened and uncomfortable but I realised they didn't know I spoke their language and I was in a crowded place so it all passed.