Hungary against pro-LGBT Europe: Who wins?
What is behind the fight between pro-Europe and Hungary, what are Hungary’s chances to win, and what can we, Ukrainians, learn from this?
Europe has become so homophilic (LGBT ideology-centred) that a reasonable position of Hungary on this issue causes persistent rejection. And indeed, how can a NATO and EU member dare to restrict LGBT propaganda? Let's figure it out.
On June 23, 2021, the Euro 2020 match between the teams of Germany and Hungary took place at the Allianz Arena Stadium in Munich. And then in retaliation for the fact that on June 15, 2021, Hungary adopted a law, prohibiting the promotion of LGBT ideology among minors, the city council Munich called to illuminate the Allianz Arena Stadium in the colours of the LGBT flag. According to Munich deputies, this should be a sign of Germans’ solidarity with the LGBT community in response to the restriction of LGBT rights, which the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban is blamed for. The match itself ended in a draw 2: 2. Although UEFA banned the Germans to illuminate the stadium in LGBT colours, the tribunes were bright with the symbols of homosexuals, and one of them ran out with a rainbow flag right onto the field and demonstratively walked in front of Hungarian athletes.
However, a football match is just a fight between athletes. And on a global scale, we see a struggle unfolding at the level of countries and ideologies. We have already written about the struggle against "European values" on the part of Poland in the article "Abortion or Life: Poland as the Last Chance of Christian Europe". Now it's Hungary's turn. In fact, we already see the "cold war" between Hungary and "enlightened Europe", a kind of fight between David and Goliath. Why is this fight taking place, what are the chances of victory for Hungary, and what should we, Ukrainians, learn from this fight?
What Hungarian Law says
According to the “Hungary Today” resource, the new law sets the following restrictions:
- within the framework of sex education classes in schools, the relevant materials should not contain any information about possible gender reassignment or the promotion of homosexuality;
- sex education classes can only be conducted by school teachers or specially certified by the state teachers or organizations, while liberal non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (promoting LGBT ideology) shall be excluded from the sex education process;
- the Hungarian child protection system shall protect the child's right to their gender at birth;
- it is prohibited to place advertisements or other content aimed at young people under the age of 18, which contains pornographic materials, sexual illustrations, promotes homosexuality or gender identity that does not coincide with the sex received at birth;
- TV channels broadcasting films and programs with the content described above shall be required to carry an 18+ certificate and broadcast relevant materials at night.
As you can see, Hungarian law does not violate the rights of people who identify themselves as LGBT in any way. It only protects children and adolescents from the propaganda of LGBT ideology. Homosexual relations in Hungary have not been legally punishable since 1961. Since 2002, the age of sexual consent for homosexual relations has been equal to that of heterosexual ones, it is 14 years. In 2003, the Law on Equal Treatment and Promotion of Equal Opportunities was adopted, which prohibits discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity in almost all fields of social life. In 2009, same-sex marriage (or rather, civil unions) was legalized in Hungary. All of this legislation is still in effect. Can we say that LGBT people are somehow infringed upon in this country? In no way.
How the law was passed in Hungary
The story of the adoption of a law restricting LGBT propaganda should begin with the adoption of a new Constitution, which was initiated by one of the two largest political parties in Hungary: "Fidesz - Hungarian Civil Union". The Constitution entered into force in 2012 and contains, together with the amendments, such interesting points:
- the Constitution stipulates that the Hungarian people are united by "God and Christianity";
- the state is obliged to protect human life, which begins at conception (in fact, the prohibition of abortion);
- marriage is the union of a man and a woman;
- it is said that "Hungary must protect the right of children to self-identify according to their sex at birth".
This last point became the basis for the adoption of the law restricting LGBT propaganda, but we note that it took nine years to implement this provision of the Constitution by adopting the relevant law. At the same time, in order to accept it, it was not without certain tricks that the conservative parties of Hungary resorted to. The deputy leader of the parliamentary group "Fidesz" Kocsis Máté introduced a bill on the fight against pedophilia, according to which the corresponding penalties were toughened. The bill was supported by both the ruling and opposition parties. And after that, amendments restricting homosexual propaganda were made to it.
As a result, the opposition parties left the walls of the Parliament and did not vote for the law, and the ruling parties, with a score of 157 for and 1 against, adopted the law.
Such tricks were needed because both in Hungary itself and especially in the European Union there is a powerful LGBT lobby that is trying to suppress any attempts to limit the aggressive spread of sodomy in Europe. And we must pay tribute to both the Fidesz - Hungarian Civil Union party and personally to Prime Minister Viktor Orban for the fact that they systematically and persistently pursue a policy of protecting traditional values, which they declare in their election programmes and which they did not abandon, having received power.
As for supporting the policy of protecting traditional values in Hungarian society, according to a study conducted by Eurobarometer, most Hungarians have a negative attitude towards LGBT people, and the number of such people is growing rapidly. In just five years, from 2014 to 2019, the number of opponents of LGBT ideology in Hungary has grown by thirteen percent. This is the largest figure in the European Union.
LGBT supporters' reaction
Naturally, it was extremely negative. Even before the vote in the Hungarian Parliament, EU Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli threatened Budapest with the termination of financial assistance from the European Union. “If you do not respect the values of democracy and equality of the EU, then you have no right to receive money for your project,” she said. At the same time, the Commissioner noted that the provisions of the Hungarian law are not only an infringement on the rights and identity of LGBT people but also restrict freedom of speech and education.
This is very remarkable, since real, and not imaginary, restrictions on freedom of speech and education are just introduced by supporters of LGBT people, but already in relation to supporters of traditional values. In the infamous Istanbul Convention on Gender Equality, namely in Article 12, it is written in black and white: “The Parties shall take all necessary measures to introduce changes in the social and cultural patterns of behaviour of women and men in order to eradicate prejudices, customs, traditions and any other practice, which are based on the idea of inferiority of women or stereotypes about the roles of women and men." That is, the countries that have acceded to the Istanbul Convention undertake to eradicate traditional ideas about the "role of women and men" from their societies, and, moreover, label them as "prejudices".
Also, before the vote in the Hungarian Parliament, opposition parties and public organizations of the liberal wing took to the streets from 5 to 10 thousand protesters against the adoption of the law. However, the law was still passed.
After that, almost all leading European media published the relevant news with a negative connotation. They drew attention to the fact that the rights of the LGBT community will allegedly be infringed upon, despite the fact that almost never in the European media you will find regret if the rights of people of traditional orientation or adherents of traditional views on the family, and in general, on relations between people are violated.
The so-called human rights organizations did not lag behind in their negative assessment of Hungarian law. For example, Amnesty International spokesman Aron Demeter said: “This law can have very serious consequences, and I think that, unfortunately, it will be so. The consequences will be very different – from bullying in schools to suicide, this is what we and the LGBT community will have to face. They are already in an extremely vulnerable position in Hungary.” This statement is rather significant. And here we come to understand the essence of LGBT ideology.
Is LGBT ideology viable?
One cannot but agree that the “dire consequences” predicted by the Amnesty International representative are very, very exaggerated. You need to have a very specific mindset to seriously think that protecting students from LGBT propaganda, the imposition of pornography, sexual promiscuity and sodomy will lead to "bullying, suicide" and other "serious consequences".
There are two points to note here.
First, in a huge number of cases, LGBT people suffer not so much from rejection by traditional society, but from the fact that their own psyche cannot cope with the identification imposed on them by the LGBT environment. Simply put, at first, LGBT propaganda instills in a completely normal teenager the idea that he is a girl or gay, and then his/her psyche cannot withstand this pressure. Often this is what leads to suicide or other tragic consequences. Of course, due to the lack of reliable statistics and correct scientific research, there is no way to argue that these are the majority of cases in LGBT people. But given the aggressive propaganda campaign for LGBT people in European countries in recent decades, it is logical to assume that this is the case in reality.
If the LGBT community is deprived of the opportunity through propaganda to acquire new adherents from among people with a traditional orientation, then it will die out in the most natural way.
Secondly, the aforementioned statement by an Amnesty International representative proves that LGBT ideology is not viable in itself. If LGBT representatives are relieved of legal responsibility for homosexual relations, but at the same time deprived of the opportunity to acquire new adherents from among people with a traditional orientation through propaganda, then the LGBT community will die out in the most natural way. For its existence, it needs aggressive development, recruiting more and more new adherents, which is ensured by the propaganda of LGBT ideology in schools and among minors in general. It is at this age that adolescents develop an idea of gender relations, social roles, and so on. And it is at this age that it is most convenient for adolescents to instill not just the idea of the "normality" of same-sex relationships or gender reassignment but to incept the idea of their own possible homosexuality or the desire to become a transgender in their minds. Without this, the entire LGBT movement will wither away and turn from the modern mainstream into a marginal group that will be of little interest to anyone.
That is why the promotion of LGBT ideology is the main factor for the existence of the LGBT community. And therefore, adherents of this ideology will do everything in their power to be able to propagate their beliefs mainly among minors.
The promotion of LGBT ideology is the main factor for the existence of the LGBT community.
What will happen next?
Opposition Hungarian parties threaten to sue the Constitutional Court and stage mass protests. France, Germany and representatives of the European Commission expressed concern about possible violations of EU legislation. The European Union has announced the launch of an investigation into the Hungarian law on restrictions on LGBT propaganda. Of course, the European Union can realize the threat of the EU Commissioner for Equality Hellena Dalli and reduce financial assistance to Hungary, but by and large there are not very many levers of pressure from EU structures on countries that do not want to follow in the wake of European liberal policy.
If sanctions are applied to Hungary, this will become a pretext for promoting the topic of leaving the European Union. After Brexit, it doesn't seem so incredible. And do not forget that there is another troublemaker in the European Union – Poland. This country is also tightening its legislation on abortion and LGBT ideology. There are localities in Poland that have been declared "LGBT-free territories", which outrages European liberals no less than Hungarian legislation.
In order to reverse the policy of Hungary and Poland (so far, we can only speak about these countries in detail, but perhaps their number will increase) there is only one effective way – to arrange a change of government. Not necessarily in some revolutionary way, it could be an ordinary election in which European liberals will try to bring their colleagues in these countries to power. The methods were demonstrated to everyone in the last elections in the United States when one of the candidates, and moreover the current president, was turned off from live broadcasts on television, was not given access to the media, and was blocked on social networks. And this is not to mention the direct stuffing of ballots, which were recorded by D. Trump's representatives, but which could not be effectively used in American courts.
On the other hand, the latest political trends in European countries indicate that right-wing and even ultra-right parties are expanding their presence in the political space and are getting more and more votes. Therefore, we should expect an even greater exacerbation of the political struggle both in Hungary and in other countries, because it is no longer just a struggle for power, but as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a recent interview: “The war for the spirit and the future of Europe is being waged here and now."
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Does all this have anything to do with Ukraine? Certainly, the most direct one. Our country is desperately striving for the European Union, and for the sake of the longed-for EU, our authorities are ready for anything. Even now we're ready to participate in the Biarritz Partnership, obsequiously support gay pride parades, and adopt the “right” changes to the legislation, even though our population is rapidly declining. What will happen to Ukrainians if we do not stop LGBT propaganda among our children if the number of traditional families decreases and sodomy becomes a kind of norm?
The Holy Scripture warns us: “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them” (Lev 20:13). Do we want this fate for our children? Of course, not. Therefore, you can look in Europe’s direction, but it is better to look closely at those who have not forgotten their Christian basis.
