On 15 June 2021, the Hungarian Parliament adopted Act LXXIX of 2021 on taking more severe action sexual criminal offenses against minors. Last minute amendments introduced by government members added anti-LGBTQ provisions in this law to introduce a ban on access of minors to any content that “propagates or portrays divergence from self-identity corresponding to sex at birth, sex change or homosexuality.” With these last-minute amendments, the so-called ‘Child protection law’ became the Hungarian version of the ‘anti-LGBTQ propaganda law’ adopted in Russia in 2013.
On 15 July 2021, the European Commission launched a procedure against Hungary – something called an infringement procedure – because they considered that this ‘anti-LGBTQ propaganda’ law violated EU law and treaties. After a failed dialogue the case was finally referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union on 19 December 2022. It is now being published in the Official Journal on 13 February 2023.
From this date on, EU Member States will have six weeks to submit ‘written observations’ on the case. By doing so, they would declare their support to the Hungarian LGBTQ community and signify that this anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda law is not welcome anywhere in the EU. This court case looks like to become the largest human rights trial of the European Union.
A petition is published by Forbidden Colours, Reclaim Europe, Háttér Society and Budapest Pride with which citizens can send a letter to their representatives to call them to join the court case against Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ law. You can help amplify our voices by sharing this call on as many platforms as possible and ask your communities to sign this petition.
Mailing lists, social media platforms, group chats and private channels are all effective ways of spreading the word: the Hungarian LGBTQ community will not be forgotten: citizens all over the EU are raising their voices!
Our hope is that we manage to gather thousands of signatures from citizens from each EU Member States.
You can see the petition on forbidden-colours.com/petition so please share it starting from Monday the 13th until Tuesday 28th of February.
