It Is Spreading Like a Wild Fire

Now it is rearing its ugly head in the right-wing country of Hungary.

Hungary bans teenagers from World Press Photo exhibit, citing LGBT content

Reuters

By Krisztina Than; editing by David Evans

October 28, 2023

Hungary's government has banned youngsters under 18 from visiting the World Press Photo exhibition on display in Budapest, citing LGBT content in some of the photos.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government promotes a Christian-conservative agenda and in 2021 banned the "display and promotion of homosexuality" in books and films accessible by under-18s despite strong criticism from rights groups and the European Union.

On Saturday, the Hungarian National Museum stopped selling tickets for the photo exhibition for youngsters after the far-right Mi Hazank/Our Homeland party had initiated a government inquiry, the party said.

"Based on the initiative of Mi Hazank, youngsters under 18 cannot visit the exhibition at the National Museum as it violates the child protection law," the far-right party told state news agency MTI. The new rule was posted on the museum's website later on Saturday.

But wait there is more…

The 2021 law, which the government says aims to protect children, has caused anxiety in the LGBT community.

Hungary is moving to the far-right becoming an authoritarian state, they like living under a dictator, the people don’t have to think the government does it for them.

From last spring,

Hungary vows to fight in EU court to defend anti-LGBT law

Hungary’s Justice Minister said late on Wednesday (8 March) that Budapest would fight in the Court of Justice of the EU to defend an education law that Brussels says discriminates against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Euractiv.com with Reuters

March 9, 2023

Justice Minister Judit Varga said in a Facebook post she had submitted a counter claim to the court because the government would stick to its stance that education was a matter for national governments to decide.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s anti-LGBT campaign escalated in June 2021 when the parliament, dominated by his Fidesz party, passed a law banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change at schools.

The government has said the law aimed to protect children, not target the LGBT community.

Where have we heard that before?

All dictators need a scapegoat and we are it.

Reuters in another article wrote,

Germany and France are joining the EU Commission's infringement proceedings against Hungary over its anti-LGBT law, a German government spokesperson said on Thursday.

The European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU in mid-2022 over the law banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change in schools. The commission has said it considers the law violates the EU's internal market rules, the fundamental rights of individuals and EU values.

[…]

According to the German government, 14 EU member states have now joined the proceedings: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Malta, Austria, Sweden, Slovenia, Finland and now France and Germany.

This is from several years ago but it show a trend in the Eastern Europe countries.

The Worrying Regression Of LGBT Rights In Eastern Europe

Radio Free Europe

By Tony Wesolowsky

December 23, 2021

From physical attacks to online abuse and legislative setbacks, the LBGT community in Central and Eastern Europe had little to cheer about in 2021.

Populist governments in Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere were able to exploit frustrations and fears, some stoked by church leaders, some by the grinding COVID-19 pandemic, to push through anti-LGBT legislation.

It was, however, part of a wider trend over a wider swath of Europe, argues Evelyne Paradis, executive director of the European branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe).

"Poland and Hungary are not anomalies. In the past year, we've seen increased political repression against LGBT people, a stark rise in socioeconomic hardship, and the spreading of LGBT-phobic hatred on the streets and online across the region," Paradis told RFE/RL in e-mailed comments.

[…]

Much outrage was directed at the new Hungarian legislation, which critics say equates homosexuality with pedophilia, but which Budapest and its nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban argued would protect children and families. EU leaders condemned the new Hungarian legislation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling it a "shame." But nearly all the leaders of former communist Eastern Europe refused to sign a letter condemning the Hungarian law.

You see these right-wing governments and the Republicans push the lie that being LGBTQ is a choice, the truth destroys their propaganda against us. If we are born this way then there is nothing to protect the children from because you can’t convert them. 

We can't be the Boogeyman luring them in to dark alleys if it is not a choice.