Hungary’s parliament has passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics are calling another step toward authoritarianism.
The amendment, which required a two-thirds vote, passed along party lines with 140 votes for and 21 against.
It was proposed by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including the right to peacefully assemble.
The amendment codifies a law fast-tracked through parliament in March that bans public events held by LGBTQ+ communities, including the popular Pride event in Budapest that draws thousands of visitors annually.
That law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend prohibited events and can come with fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints (€481).
And here I am, taking my children to pride events to actually develop their morals and spirit. How can it be harmful to experience that people (and my children, obviously) are loved regardless of whom they love, their gender identies or how their bodies/genitals look like?
Hungary’s parliament is currently above the constitution because the ruling party has a 2/3 majority. They might as well pass all laws as constitutional laws. The situation is quite similar to the UK where any party with a prime minister can change anything at all.
We have a similar system in the Netherlands but a meaningful difference is that you don’t only need a 2/3 majority but also a ‘confirming’ vote by the next coalition. This might not do much in a case like Hungary or Turkey where the next ruler is similar as the previous but there having to be a public vote in between can potentially greatly shift the powers and end the majority.
That sounds like quite a sensible system. Also in NL the 2/3 will almost always require a broad coalition of parties because of your proportional system.
I think the system in general works quite well, the only downside is that you only need like 0.5% of votes for a seat which means there is now 15 parties or so in the parlement which makes is very representative but from time to time also very slow. There has been cases where the decisive vote for a (2/3) was held by small parties where you could just see them in a kind of bidding war. But if I look at the international news I generally feel grateful for our system.
What’s wrong with LGBTQ? I can’t understand his motivations. I’m not LGBTQ myself but banning public events by them makes no sense to me. Does he think he’ll get more votes this way?
Just like there was nothing wrong with Jews, they need a public enemy and they can’t pick people from the majority so they’ve picked non-whites non-straights and non-females. Also lines up with the Christian believe system, which have been using LGBTQ people as scapegoat since they stopped burning witches.
So first of all, the only reason to do this is to achieve authoritarian control, simply because many people want more power. Power is the end goal, not what you want to do with that power, they simply want more of it. This is the overarching theme for all of their actions.
And yes, in a society where the general public has more power than the ruling class, theoretically, they have to get public support. “Protecting the children” sounds good to the general public. Read the article to see how the law is worded: “children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including the right to peacefully assemble”
But the actual reason for why the war against LGBTQ specifically is popular, is a sentiment among many people that sexuality is evil, and only barely acceptable just to facilitate childbirth. If you look at LGBTQ, almost everything within it is for free sexuality, and if you’re gay, lesbian, trans, asexual for example, that theoretically directly goes against childbirth. Thus the rationale against LGBTQ is, they don’t want their kids turned LGBTQ by never even learning that it is an option for them. No public events => children never get in contact with it => children don’t become LGBTQ.
I am not surprised that Orban would push such a thing. But I am surprised that they would go as far as to amend the constitution for this, with seemingly a very comfortable majority. Is this really a reflection of Hungarian society nowadays? Have so many jumped on the conservative moral panic bandwagon over LGBTQ?
No, it’s purely distraction and building more support. A power play, if you will. It is the 15th time Fidesz has modified (unilaterally) the Hungarian constitution that they wrote about 15 years back.
With the same stroke they are also enshrining that drugs are bad and for some reason, the right to use cash. Alternatively many opposition politician’s have had their immunity revoked. And personally a scary one, dual citizens can lose citizenship for reasons.
As for the anti-gay sentiment. In the capital I would say it’s not a thing, but two guys holding hands walking down an empty street could get accosted. In smaller cities I’ve noticed that being openly gay is tolerated, but frowned upon. I’m sure the propaganda brainwashed many, there were plenty of haters to begin with anyway. Kids use gay and fag about the same way as Cartman from South Park.
The mayor of Budapest is still planning on hosting the Pride festival this year.
I truly hope these Fidesz fucks will get kicked out next year…
Orbi we know that you are gay for Putin, but you really don’t have to project your self hatred onto others…
Remember this when they call for “age verification laws” in your country.
What the fuck is a moral and why’s it so worth protecting?
a decision that legal scholars and critics are calling another step toward authoritarianism.
I feel like scholars need to get out of the books and into the real world. The same is being said about the US and it’s so obvious where both are going that I really wonder why scholars and press aren’t just calling it what it is
Be glad that there are so few of us that we can’t afford violence. You will pay, though likely on far too small a scale.
