Hungary Parliament Passes ‘Anti-LGBT’ Law Ahead of 2022 Election

The Hungarian government has passed an anti-homosexuality law, which has angered many human rights organizations. Right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces elections next year, and his radical stance has been seen growing in recent times. His stance towards homosexuals and immigrants has become increasingly tough, due to which division is also visible in the thinking of the people of the country.

Hungary’s parliament has handed laws that bans the dissemination of content material in colleges deemed to advertise homosexuality and gender change, amid robust criticism from human rights teams and opposition events.

Viktor Orban’s Fidesz Party promotes the Christian-Orthodox agenda in the country. He also added talking about homosexuality in schools to a broader law making punishment for child sexual abuse stricter, making it difficult for opposition parties to vote against the law.

Just last week, some amendments were made to the bill that prohibits teens and children under the age of 18 from showing any material that incites or encourages them to become homosexual or change gender. This condition will also apply to advertisements. Under this law, a list of some organizations has been given, other than which no one else will be allowed to have sex education in schools.

Critics of the new law have compared it to a 2013 Russian law that made it illegal to “distribute propaganda material about unconventional sex” among youth.

Greens MP Gwendolyn Delbos-Korfield, the representative of the European Parliament on the situation in Hungary, criticized the country’s new law. On Tuesday, he said, “targeting the gay community under the pretext of protecting children is harming all Hungarian children.”