{"id":2353,"date":"2023-03-27T14:46:39","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T19:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=2353"},"modified":"2023-03-27T14:46:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T19:46:39","slug":"can-hungary-resist-international-pressure-over-its-lgbt-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=2353","title":{"rendered":"Can Hungary resist international pressure over its LGBT stance?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The country\u2019s Child Protection Act is morphing into a clash over fundamental values<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20648%20432'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-2354\" width=\"648\" height=\"432\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2354\" width=\"648\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128.png 594w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128-293x195.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128-120x80.png 120w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128-240x160.png 240w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-128-390x260.png 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hungary\u2019s Prime Minister Viktor Orban waves to supporters during an event (Getty Images)<br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an off-the-cuff monologue delivered during a press conference in Sarajevo, Hungary\u2019s Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3&nbsp;summed up his government\u2019s growing fury over international efforts to influence Hungarian domestic affairs. Asked about the US State Department\u2019s latest&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/reports\/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices\/hungary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Country Reports on Human Rights Practices<\/a>, which includes extensive criticisms of Hungary, Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3&nbsp;pulled no punches. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am appalled, and I am appalled again and again every year, that the US State Department has the courage to make such excoriating statements about the internal issues and situations of other countries,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zoltanspox\/status\/1638568742614433794\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 said<\/a>. He pointed out that the foreign ministries of most countries do not habitually issue value judgments about the governance of their allies, \u201cfirstly, because it is not our concern, and secondly, because it is none of our business.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3&nbsp;was exaggerating his outrage as red meat for the Hungarian government\u2019s nationalist voter base. Yet with the European Union also taking on an ever more active role in trying to police social values in Hungary, his reaction betrayed a deep and growing frustration that \u201cmutual respect is not present in international politics today.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US and the EU take issue with many aspects of Budapest\u2019s conservative leadership, but for both Washington and Brussels, Hungary\u2019s stance against what it calls \u201cLGBT ideology\u201d has become the biggest battleground. A legal struggle is now intensifying over Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cChild Protection Act,\u201d dubbed the \u201canti-gay law\u201d by international media.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This law, introduced in 2021, is an effective gauntlet thrown down by Orb\u00e1n to progressive western leaders.&nbsp;Cut from similar cloth to Ron DeSantis\u2019s so-called \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d law, it bans content that \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/archiv.njt.hu\/cgi_bin\/njt_doc.cgi?docid=249873.426375\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">promotes gender reassignment, homosexuality, or promotes sexuality for its own sake<\/a>\u201d and that is accessible to children. It also tightens up requirements for the delivery of sexual education in schools. The law is strict, but the Hungarian government frames it as a limitation on freedom of speech that\u2019s necessary to prevent harm.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just as the State Department issued its scathing human rights report, the European Parliament\u2019s legal committee voted in favor of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/telex.hu\/english\/2023\/03\/21\/european-parliament-joins-lawsuit-against-hungary-over-anti-gay-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">joining a lawsuit<\/a>&nbsp;lodged by the European Commission against the Child Protection Act. A swath of EU countries \u2014 mostly the union\u2019s more affluent northern and western states \u2014 also joined the Commission\u2019s case, which argues that the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/IP_22_2689\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hungarian law violates the rights and dignity of LGBT people<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/newsletter\/brussels-playbook\/summit-time-michels-mess-bettel-goes-nuclear-on-nuclear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pressure is on for more countries to join the lawsuit<\/a>&nbsp;by the end of the month, although major players France and Germany have appeared ambivalent, perhaps recognizing that Orb\u00e1n&nbsp;only stands to gain politically from attempts by the international community to interfere in Hungarian social policies. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, much of the EU establishment sees the Child Protection Act as openly homophobic. For European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, protection of children is being weaponized by the Orb\u00e1n&nbsp;government as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/newsletter\/brussels-playbook\/eu-vs-greenwashing-russian-oil-cheat-anti-gay-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an excuse to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation<\/a>.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In assessing Hungary\u2019s stance on homosexuality, though, it should be remembered that Hungary\u2019s recognition of same-sex unions, as well as its laws against hate speech and discrimination, actually make it&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilga-europe.org\/report\/rainbow-europe-2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more progressive than several other EU countries<\/a>&nbsp;whose draconian restrictions fly largely under the international radar. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But many of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s supporters agree with the government that there is a need to impose limits on the public dissemination of LGBT themes. Gender reassignment has become the major flashpoint; in a State of the Nation address earlier this year, Orb\u00e1n&nbsp;declared that \u201cgender propaganda is not just an entertaining caper, not just rainbow chatter, but the greatest threat stalking our children.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the international pressure ramps up, Orb\u00e1n&nbsp;appears to be making the Child Protection Act his hill to die on. Claiming the EU wants to take away Hungarian parents\u2019 right to raise their children in the way they see fit, Orb\u00e1n&nbsp;said in a recent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zoltanspox\/status\/1634562123459067905\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">radio interview<\/a>&nbsp;that \u201cthere is such a gap between our two positions that I do not see how it can be bridged. And as we are not going to give in, Brussels will eventually have to give in.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is morphing into a clash over fundamental values. At the deepest level, Hungary is inverting the modern progressive framework for mediating social disputes, explicitly and unashamedly putting the perceived interests of the social majority above those of minority groups.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Budapest\u2019s LGBT stance is only one element of its isolation from the rest of the West. Often accused of being Vladimir Putin\u2019s \u201cTrojan Horse\u201d in the EU, Hungary has made further headlines in recent days by declaring that, despite being a signatory of the Rome Statue that created the International Criminal Court, it would not arrest Vladimir Putin if he entered Hungarian territory, because the statute has not been integrated into the nation\u2019s legal system. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Child Protection Act is fast becoming the central issue in Hungary\u2019s alienation from the rest of the West, because it encapsulates the ideological divide that underpins wider ambivalence about the nation\u2019s place in the modern world. As international powers grow increasingly uncompromising in enforcing their values abroad, Hungary is a litmus test for the ability of nationalist political movements to pursue a dissenting conservative agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/hungary-resist-international-pressure-lgbt\/\">https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/hungary-resist-international-pressure-lgbt\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The country\u2019s Child Protection Act is morphing into a clash over fundamental values In an off-the-cuff monologue delivered during a press conference in Sarajevo, Hungary\u2019s Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3&nbsp;summed up his government\u2019s growing fury over international efforts to influence Hungarian domestic affairs. Asked about the US State Department\u2019s latest&nbsp;Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which includes extensive criticisms of Hungary, Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3&nbsp;pulled no punches. &nbsp; \u201cI am appalled, and I am appalled again and again every year, that the US State [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-propaganda"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2355,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions\/2355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}