Hungary today passed a law banning the "promotion" of homosexuality to minors, raising concerns among human rights defenders as Victor Orban's government escalates its crackdown on the LGBTQI community.
The amendment was adopted by 157 Members during a live televised sitting.
🏳️🌈🇭🇺157 Hungarian MPs just voted to legally equal LGBTIQ people to pedophiles.
HeThey want to silence the LGBTIQ-community, and declare them second-class citizens by copy-pasting a Russian law.
CallI call @eucopresident @EUCouncil to convene a session to implement sanctions. pic.twitter.com/jkXkc5k7PC
- Rémy Bonny 🏳️🌈🇪🇺 (@RemyBonny) June 15, 2021
The opposition boycotted the vote, with the exception of the far-right Jobbik, which voted in favor of the amendment.
"Pornography and content expressing sexuality or promoting gender identity, gender reassignment and homosexuality should not be accessible to persons under 18 years of age," the text of the amendment, which seeks to protect children's rights ".
In practice, training programs or registrations of large companies referring to groups in the LGBTQI community, such as the Coca-Cola ad involving a couple of men that sparked boycott calls in Hungary in 2019, will no longer be allowed.
The same will be true of books, such as the collection of myths and legends that dramatized the homosexuality that angered the Hungarian regime in 2020.
Series such as "Friends" or movies such as "Bridget Jones," "Harry Potter" or "Billy Eliot," which refer to homosexuality, are also likely to be banned for those under the age of 18, NGOs warn.
Thousands took to the streets of Budapest last night to denounce the government's ongoing propaganda against the LGBTQI community.