Budapest: For Dorottya Redai, an Hungarian LGBTQ activist who visited the school to help fight homophobia, the new Hungarian law which prohibits “promoting” homosexuality to underage children is not surprising.
Law, which came into force on Thursday, has been filled with a blend of criticism, with the head of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen gave a “disgrace” label and warning the consequences if not repaired.
“Over the years the ruling party Fardsz has eliminated references to sexual minorities or gender equality or gender in the school curriculum,” Redai, 48, said in Budapest.
“As if gay people don’t exist, but they do it,” he said, pointing to the booklet training for the LGBTQ-themed teacher and book published by his Lesbian Labrisz Association.
In recent years, politicians from Fardsz, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has “equalized homosexuality with pedophilia,” he added.
The ban on “display or promotion” homosexuality or gender reassignment against Under-18s is part of the broader “anti-pedophilia law” which was initially limited to harder actions against child sexual harassment.
But the delay in changes to the bill, approved by the Parliament of Fidez’s dominance last month, included a ban and restrictions on sex education and media content.
While the steps have been compared with the Russian 2013 Bill which prohibits “gay propaganda” for minors, lawyers have said that it is unclear but what sanctions will be issued for violating the law.
“It’s not clear,” said Redai, who has helped take one of the LABRISZ programs called “Know LGBT people” to around 40 to 50 schools a year since 2004.
“For us, the real impact will be a self sensor, the teacher wins.
It invited us again to their school for fear of getting a problem with the parent or central school management bureau, “he said.
“But school children will continue to talk a lot about being gay, although still taboo for most teachers, they are not trained to talk about such social problems,” Redai continued.
“We talk to them about homophobic or transphobic discrimination or intimidation at school, where young people learn about the issue of LGBTQ internet is not always the best source,” he said.
The latest legislation was seen by his supporters as part of the Oraban project because he took power in 2010 to reshape Hungary into what was called the “Illiberal” social conservative bastion.
In 2019, the Coca-Cola advertising campaign featuring a gay couple who smiled drives several leading members of Fardsz to call for the boycott of the company’s products.
In December, Parliament agreed to an effective prohibition on adoption by gay pairs, while a year ago, a legally changing gender ban began to apply.
“Leave our children alone!” Orban said last year in sympathy with far true politicians who openly emitted fairy tales published by Labrisz which included several homosexual characters.
Orban stressed that new law is about “child protection” and turns off the anger from Brussels.
“No one other than parents must say in children’s sex education, the law prohibits sexual and heterosexual homosexual propaganda targeted at children,” the government’s press office told AFP on Tuesday.
“Sexual education must only be done by professionals, in the authorization of parents who have been made aware of the previous curriculum,” he said.
Some analysts said the ORBAN step was intended to sustain its voter base ahead of next year’s election which was expected to race tight, and returned to the party far from our homeland for anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
“Because this law is not possible to be applied legally, it is more like trolling or theater to provoke conflict and polarization of the community,” Bulcsu Hunyadi, an analyst with a political think tank capital, told AFP.
Over the decade at Power Orban has “looked for enemies to attend its voters, from the EU and civil society organizations, to migrants, asylum seekers, and George Soros,” said Hunyadi.
“And now the Coronavirus pandemic may subside and close elections, anti-gender narratives increase, but it plays a role with the lives of citizens for short-term political profits,” he said.
Because the law passed several homophobil attacks had been reported in local media, and Redai was worried about “people driven by this law to vent their aggression in others”.
“In the political climate where we are made into enemies, LGBTQ people, especially those who live in rural areas that have not come out, must be scared,” he said.