The European Commission has started legal action against Hungary after the country passed a law that bans sharing content in schools that seemingly endorses gay and transgender issues, the commission announced Thursday. “Equality and the respect for dignity and human rights are core values of the E.U.,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Parliament’s president, said in a statement. “The Commission will use all the instruments at its disposal to defend these values.” The European Union’s executive branch also opened a case against Poland on Thursday after several of the country’s towns declared themselves “LGBT-free” and unwelcoming toward queer people. Since Hungary’s law, which appears to conflate LGBTQ issues with pedophilia, passed in the country’s Parliament on June 15, international pressure on the European Union to take action has mounted. At least 17 European countries publicly condemned the measure. Last month, Germany lit the Munich soccer stadium in rainbow colors when the country played Hungary during the Euro 2020 match to demonstrate LGBTQ support. Critics of Hungary’s new law have compared it to Russia’s 2013 “gay propaganda law,” which bans distributing information about LGBTQ issues and relationships to minors. Hungary’s ultra-nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban said this month he would not overrule the law despite the pressure.