Last updated on June 23rd, 2021 at 06:42 pm
In December, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had an emphatic message to radical LGBT activists: “leave our children alone.”
This week, they drove the point home once again with an overwhelming vote in favour of a bill ensuring the innocence of Hungary’s children.
On Tuesday, Hungary’s National Assembly voted 157-1 on a bill that establishes a wide range of measures aimed at protecting kids. In addition to doing things like creating a national registry for sex offenders (similar to the one in the United States), the bill also prohibits any sharing of content with minors – in, and outside of the classroom – that promotes a particular sexual agenda (rather than teaching kids simply about the biological functioning of the body and the reproductive act). The bill was tabled in May by Orbán’s conservative ruling party Fidesz, which also holds a parliamentary majority. Fidesz began to revise child pornography regulations in August 2020 after Hungary’s ambassador to Peru was handed down a suspended prison sentence for possessing thousands of pornographic photos of minors.
While one independent MP voted against the bill, other opponents altogether boycotted the voting session in protest. Human rights groups strongly denounced the law, arguing it conflates LGBT people with pedophiles. One political pundit equated it to “classical political pedophilia“, accusing Fidesz of using the bill as a ploy to rouse their conservative base ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.
However, Fidesz state secretary Csaba Domotor underlined that the protection of children is paramount, pointing to amendments in the law such as the one that introduces the searchable registry of convicted pedophiles. “Pedophiles won’t be able to hide any more – there are similar solutions in other countries, too. The criminal code will be even more strict. Punishments will be more severe. No one can get away with atrocities with light punishments and parole,” he said.
While the amendments – leaning on last December’s Fundamental Law of Hungary – were largely accepted, there were protests surrounding some modifications to the bill:
- Regarding sex education in schools, materials must not contain anything aimed at changing gender or promoting homosexuality.
- Besides teachers of the school, only people or organizations included in an official, continually updated register can hold sex education classes. This means that liberal NGOs would probably be excluded.
- Also, the right of a child to identify according to his or her sex at birth is guarded by the law under the aegis of the child protection system.
- It is forbidden to carry content targeting youth below the age of 18 which has pornographic depictions, portrays themselves in a sexual manner, or doing anything to promote homosexuality or a gender identity at variance with gender at birth. The same applies to advertisements.
- Television stations will be obliged to carry an 18+ certificate for films and programming with content which deviates from the law’s restrictions, while Hungary’s media authority will be required to seek remedial action by the member state under whose jurisdiction any infringements take place.
More than a dozen local organizations, including Amnesty International Hungary, wrote in a statement that the law is not in line with Hungarian society. In a Facebook post, Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony called it a “shameful day” for Hungary while Dunja Mijatovic, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, had asked Hungarian lawmakers to reject the legislation, saying it reinforced prejudice against LGBT people.
And yet, there have been many accounts of unjust prejudice against people who have been victimized by the LGBT agenda, with the transgender movement being the latest weaponry deployed. In Canada, a postman from Vancouver, British Columbia is currently serving a six-month jail term for refusing to affirm his daughter as male. Rob Hoogland was sentenced in April after his daughter had been indoctrinated with transgender ideology for years in grade school. The girl had also begun “transitioning” to a male under the supervision of a psychologist who had referred her to an endocrinologist at the Gender Clinic at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. All of this, inside and outside of the classroom, happened without Hoogland’s knowledge.
Said Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, “protection of our children might not be a question: zero tolerance for pedophiles, while the education of children about sexual orientation is the parents’ sole right.” Fidesz MP Gabriella Selmeczi said that “true liberalism is about leaving children under the age of 18 alone with issues that affect their sexual orientation.”