A new anti-LGBTQ+ law banning Pride events and allowing authorities to use facial recognition software to identify those attending the festivities was passed in Hungary on Tuesday, leading to a large demonstration on the streets of Budapest. <\/p>\n
Several thousand protesters chanting anti-government slogans gathered after the vote outside Hungary\u2019s parliament. They later staged a blockade of the Margaret Bridge over the Danube, blocking traffic and disregarding police instructions to leave the area. <\/p>\n
The move by Hungarian lawmakers is part of a crackdown on the country\u2019s LGBTQ+ community by the nationalist-populist party of Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
The measure, which is reminiscent of similar restrictions against sexual minorities in Russia, was passed in a 136-27 vote. The law, supported by Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party and their minority coalition partner the Christian Democrats, was pushed through parliament in an accelerated procedure after being submitted on Monday. <\/p>\n
Opposing legislators led a vivid protest in the legislature involving rainbow-colored smoke bombs. <\/p>\n
At the protest outside parliament, Evgeny Belyakov, a Russian citizen who immigrated to Hungary after facing repression in Russia, said the legislation went at the heart of people\u2019s rights to peacefully assemble. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite terrifying to be honest, because we had the same in Russia. It was building up step by step, and I feel like this is what is going on here,\u201d he said. \u201cI just only hope that there will be more resistance like this in Hungary, because in Russia we didn\u2019t resist on time and now it\u2019s too late.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bill amends Hungary\u2019s law on assembly to make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary\u2019s contentious \u201cchild protection\u201d legislation, which prohibits the \u201cdepiction or promotion\u201d of homosexuality to minors under 18. <\/p>\n
Attending a prohibited event will carry fines up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546), which the state must forward to \u201cchild protection,\u201d according to the text of the law. Authorities may use facial recognition tools to identify individuals attending a prohibited event. <\/p>\n
In a statement on Monday after lawmakers first submitted the bill, Budapest Pride organizers said the aim of the law was to \u201cscapegoat\u201d the LGBTQ+ community in order to silence voices critical of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not child protection, this is fascism,\u201d wrote the organizers of the event, which attracts thousands each year and celebrates the history of the LGBTQ+ movement while asserting the equal rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. <\/p>\n
Following the law\u2019s passage Tuesday, Budapest Pride spokesperson Joj\u00f3 Majercsik told The Associated Press that despite Orb\u00e1n\u2019s yearslong effort to stigmatize LGBTQ+ people, the organization had received an outpouring of support since the Hungarian leader hinted in February that his government would take steps to ban the event. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany, many people have been mobilized,\u201d Majercsik said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new thing, compared to the attacks of the last years, that we\u2019ve received many messages and comments from people saying, \u2018Until now I haven\u2019t gone to Pride, I didn\u2019t care about it, but this year I\u2019ll be there and I\u2019ll bring my family.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
The new legislation is the latest step against LGBTQ+ people taken by Orb\u00e1n, whose government has passed other laws that rights groups and other European politicians have decried as repressive against sexual minorities. <\/p>\n
In 2022, the European Union\u2019s executive commission filed a case with the EU\u2019s highest court against Hungary\u2019s 2021 child protection law. The European Commission argued that the law \u201cdiscriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s \u201cchild protection\u201d law \u2014 aside from banning the \u201cdepiction or promotion\u201d of homosexuality in content available to minors, including in television, films, advertisements and literature \u2014 also prohibits the mention of LGBTQ+ issues in school education programs, and forbids the public depiction of \u201cgender deviating from sex at birth.\u201d <\/p>\n
Booksellers in Hungary have faced hefty fines for failing to wrap books that contain LGBTQ+ themes in closed packaging. Critics have argued Orb\u00e1n\u2019s campaign amounts to an attempt to cut LGBTQ+ visibility, and that by tying it to child protection, it falsely conflates homosexuality with pedophilia. <\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s government argues that its policies are designed to protect children from \u201csexual propaganda.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s methods resemble tactics by Putin, who in December 2022 expanded Russia\u2019s ban on \u201cpropaganda of nontraditional sexual relations\u201d from minors to adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ activities. <\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n, in power since 2010, faces an unprecedented challenge from a rising opposition party as Hungary\u2019s economy struggles to emerge from an inflation and cost of living crisis and an election approaches in 2026. <\/p>\n
Tam\u00e1s Dombos, a project coordinator at Hungarian LGBTQ+ rights group H\u00e1tt\u00e9r Society, said that Orb\u00e1n\u2019s assault on minorities was a tactic to distract voters from more important issues facing the country. He said allowing the use of facial recognition software at prohibited demonstrations could be used against other protests the government chooses to deem unlawful. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very common strategy of authoritarian governments not to talk about the real issues that people are affected by: the inflation, the economy, the terrible condition of education and health care,\u201d Dombos said. <\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n, he continued, \u201chas been here with us for 15 years lying into people\u2019s faces, letting the country rot basically, and then coming up with these hate campaigns.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new anti-LGBTQ+ law banning Pride events and allowing authorities to use facial recognition software…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}