Hungary has passed new anti-LGBT laws ahead of a must win 2022 election for hardline nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The legislation passed on Tuesday, June 15 by Hungary’s parliament bans the dissemination of content in schools deemed to promote homosexuality and gender change.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban (pictured above) has rallied against LGBT people and immigrants amid strong criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties.
His Fidesz party, which promotes a Christian-conservative agenda, joined the proposal banning school talks on LGBT issues to a another bill that strictly penalizes pedophilia, making it much harder for opponents of the anti-LGBT bill to vote against it.
A mass rally was held outside parliament on Monday, June 14. But on Tuesday Fidesz lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the legislation.
According to the law, under-18s cannot be shown any content that encourages gender change or homosexuality. This also applies to advertisements. The law sets up a list of organizations allowed to provide education about sex in schools.
Hungary is one of the few European countries where
gay marriage is not recognized.
In the country only heterosexual couples can legally adopt children.
Orban’s government defined marriage as the union between one man and one woman in the constitution, and limited gay adoption.
Other countries like Russia, Poland, Romania have also passed similar laws and at are odds with European Union over some of their gay supporting reforms and laws.
The European Parliament’s rapporteur in Hungary, Greens lawmaker Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, slammed the new law on Tuesday: “Using child protection as an excuse to target LGBTIQ people is damaging to all children in Hungary.”