Hungary Bans LGBTQ Content From Schools, But Some Teachers Say They Will Defy It

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7/9/21

Viktoria Radvanyi says her job has never been so stressful. She’s on the board of Budapest Pride, Hungary’s annual LGBTQ event, whose monthlong festival is currently underway. “The clear effect of [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orban’s very, very homophobic and autocratic politics is that, year by year, we find it harder and harder to find venues,” Radvanyi laments. “A lot of venues are afraid to host LGBTQ events because they fear that they are going to be attacked in the propaganda media.” In the two-year hiatus since the Hungarian capital’s last Pride march, the government has outlawed gender transition and gay adoption. Now, the Orban administration is banning LGBTQ people from appearing in school materials or on TV shows for people under 18. Supporters of Orban’s Fidesz party have hailed the reforms as the government pushes the country further to the right and antagonizes the European Union, of which Hungary is a member. But the moves have drawn strong criticism in Hungary and across the EU. The classrooms and TV ban, which took effect Thursday, has led to protests from rights advocates in Hungary who say the law discriminates against LGBTQ people and will cause harm to young people. “We think it’s really, really important to mobilize as many people as possible because right now our concrete safety and the well-being of LGBTQ youth is at danger,” Radvanyi says. The ban is part of a wider law to prevent child abuse, but Radvanyi says the government is intentionally conflating homosexuality with pedophilia to stigmatize LGBTQ communities. At a recent rally, thousands of people gathered outside parliament in Hungary’s capital Budapest and chanted “We are brave.” And a small but growing number of teachers are daring to defy the new law.

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