Hungary passes law banning the "promotion" of homosexuality among minors
Thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest on Monday evening to denounce the government's “permanent propaganda” against the LGBT community.
AP - Szilard Koszticsak
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Hungary adopted a text on Tuesday banning the "promotion" of homosexuality among minors, causing concern among rights defenders, while the sovereignist government of Viktor Orban is increasing restrictions on LGBT people.
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For weeks, Mate Kocsis has been repeating the same slogan: there is no crime more heinous than pedophilia.
In front of the deputies, the vice-president of Fidesz, the party in power, defended his bill: “
In Hungary, every day, from Monday to Friday, a crime is committed by a pedophile.
Thanks to this text, these criminals will no longer be able to get away with light sentences.
Let us protect the children as much as possible.
"
The law provides for publishing the names of convicted pedophiles, or excluding them from certain occupations.
But the text also prohibits promoting homosexuality among minors.
“
Pornography and content that depicts sexuality or promotes gender identity deviation, sex reassignment and homosexuality should not be accessible to anyone under the age of 18
,” he says.
Boycott of the opposition
In practice, educational programs or advertisements from large groups supporting sexual and gender minorities, such as Coca-Cola's depicting a couple of men who sparked boycott calls in 2019, will no longer be allowed.
The same will be true for books, such as the collection of tales and legends that play down homosexuality, which had drawn the wrath of power in the fall of 2020.
Series like
Friends
or films like
Bridget Jones
,
Harry Potter
or
Billy Eliot
, in which homosexuality is mentioned, could also be banned for minors, warn the NGOs.
The amendment was approved by 157 deputies, including those of Fidesz, during a session broadcast live on television. With the exception of Jobbik, a far-right anti-Orban party, which voted in favor, the opposition boycotted the vote. Like MP Akos Hadhazy, who denounces the amalgamation between homosexuals and pedophiles. "
Morally, the boycott was the only thing to do against this propaganda law inspired by a Russian law. Of course, the government will say that the opposition supports pedophiles!
He predicts.
It didn't drag on.
The government newspaper
Magyar Nemzet
headlines on the opposition, this rainbow coalition which refuses to sanction pedophiles, reports our correspondent in Budapest,
Florence La Bruyère
.
Before Viktor Orban's return to power in 2010, Hungary was one of the most progressive countries in the region: homosexuality had been decriminalized there in the early 1960s and civil union between same-sex spouses was recognized. since 1996. It is now over.
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