Critics have criticised Hungary’s constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ public events, arguing that it “humiliates” the trans and intersex community.
On Monday (14 April), the Hungarian parliament passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to effectively ban Pride marches. The amendment, proposed by the Donald-Trump-praised Fidesz-KDNP coalition, required a two-thirds vote and was passed with 140 votes for and just 21 against.
The amendment claims that Pride and LGBTQ+ public events could be considered “harmful to children” and bans the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to youth under 18. The law also allows police to use facial recognition to target anyone seen attending Pride marches and fine them up to 200,000 Hungarian forints (£420).
Prime minister Viktor Orbán previously took to X/Twitter to praise the move and write: “We won’t let woke ideology endanger our kids.”
However, LGBTQ+ advocates have argued that the measures are not protecting children but are rather distracting citizens from important issues affecting the country.
“This whole endeavor which we see launched by the government, it has nothing to do with children’s rights,” Dánel Döbrentey, a Hungarian Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said, as per PBS News.
He added that the amendment is “pure propaganda” and “a clear message” for the trans and intersex community.
“It is definitely and purely and strictly about humiliating people and excluding them, not just from the national community, but even from the community of human beings,” Döbrentey added.
Budapest Pride, one of the LGBTQ+ organisations affected by the bill, said in a statement on 31 March that the move is “not child protection, this is fascism.”
Meanwhile, 22 embassies, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, signed an open letter expressing significant concern over the Pride march bans, saying that it restricts “on the right of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression”.
Protests have taken place across the country in response to the ban and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Mihály Orbán’s continued right-wing rhetoric. On Saturday (12 April), protesters gathered in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, to mock the ban via a “Gray Pride” march.
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