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Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ public events

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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s parliament on Monday passed an amendment to 
the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ 
communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics call another step 
toward authoritarianism by the populist government.

The amendment, which required a two-thirds vote, passed along party lines 
with 140 votes for and 21 against. It was proposed by the ruling Fidesz-
KDNP coalition led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Ahead of the vote — the final step for the amendment — opposition 
politicians and other protesters attempted to blockade the entrance to a 
parliament parking garage. Police physically removed demonstrators, who 
had used zip ties to bind themselves together.

The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and 
spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, 
including that to peacefully assemble. Hungary’s contentious “child 
protection” legislation prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of 
homosexuality to minors aged under 18.

The amendment codifies a law fast-tracked through parliament in March that 
bans public events held by LGBTQ communities, including the popular Pride 
event in Budapest that draws thousands annually.

That law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to 
identify people who attend prohibited events — such as Budapest Pride — 
and can come with fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).

Dávid Bedo, a lawmaker with the opposition Momentum party who participated 
in the attempted blockade, said before the vote that Orbán and Fidesz for 
the past 15 years “have been dismantling democracy and the rule of law, 
and in the past two or three months, we see that this process has been 
sped up.”

He said as elections approach in 2026 and Orbán’s party lags in the polls 
behind a popular new challenger from the opposition, “they will do 
everything in their power to stay in power.”

Opposition lawmakers used air horns to disrupt the vote, which continued 
after a few moments.

Hungary’s government has campaigned against LGBTQ communities in recent 
years, and argues its “child protection” policies, which forbid the 
availability to minors of any material that mentions homosexuality, are 
needed to protect children from what it calls “woke ideology” and “gender 
madness.”

Critics say the measures do little to protect children and are being used 
to distract from more serious problems facing the country and mobilize 
Orbán’s right-wing base ahead of elections.

“This whole endeavor which we see launched by the government, it has 
nothing to do with children’s rights,” said Dánel Döbrentey, a lawyer with 
the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, calling it “pure propaganda.”

Constitution recognizes two sexes
The new amendment also states that the constitution recognizes two sexes, 
male and female, an expansion of an earlier amendment that prohibits same-
sex adoption by stating that a mother is a woman and a father is a man.

The declaration provides a constitutional basis for denying the gender 
identities of transgender people, as well as ignoring the existence of 
intersex individuals who are born with sexual characteristics that do not 
align with binary conceptions of male and female.

In a statement on Monday, government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács wrote that 
the change is “not an attack on individual self-expression, but a 
clarification that legal norms are based on biological reality.”

Döbrentey, the lawyer, said it was “a clear message” for transgender and 
intersex people: “It is definitely and purely and strictly about 
humiliating people and excluding them, not just from the national 
community, but even from the community of human beings.”

The amendment is the 15th to Hungary’s constitution since Orbán’s party 
unilaterally authored and approved it in 2011.

Facial recognition to identify demonstrators
Ádám Remport, a lawyer with the HCLU, said that while Hungary has used 
facial recognition tools since 2015 to assist police in criminal 
investigations and finding missing persons, the recent law banning Pride 
allows the technology to be used in a much broader and problematic manner. 
That includes for monitoring and deterring political protests.

“One of the most fundamental problems is its invasiveness, just the sheer 
scale of the intrusion that happens when you apply mass surveillance to a 
crowd,” Remport said.

“More salient in this case is the effect on the freedom of assembly, 
specifically the chilling effect that arises when people are scared to go 
out and show their political or ideological beliefs for fear of being 
persecuted,” he added.

Suspension of citizenship
The amendment passed Monday also allows for Hungarians who hold dual 
citizenship in a non-European Economic Area country to have their 
citizenship suspended for up to 10 years if they are deemed to pose a 
threat to public order, public security or national security.

Hungary has taken steps in recent months to protect its national 
sovereignty from what it claims are foreign efforts to influence its 
politics or even topple Orbán’s government.

The self-described “illiberal” leader has accelerated his longstanding 
efforts to crack down on critics such as media outlets and groups devoted 
to civil rights and anti-corruption, which he says have undermined 
Hungary’s sovereignty by receiving financial assistance from international 
donors.

In a speech laden with conspiracy theories in March, Orbán compared people 
who work for such groups to insects, and pledged to “eliminate the entire 
shadow army” of foreign-funded “politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-
NGOs and political activists.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/hungary-passes-constitutional-
amendment-ban-lgbtq-public-events-rcna201211

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Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ public events useapen <yourdime@outlook.com> - 2025-04-15 08:13 +0000

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