2014 Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst – Photo: Albin Olsson, via Wikimedia.
Hungary has pulled out of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest due to the contest’s LGBTQ-friendly nature and encouragement of LGBTQ representation.
While no official reason was given for the withdrawal, sources within Hungary’s state-owned public broadcaster MTVA believe the decision is due to a rise in homophobic rhetoric stemming from the Hungarian government’s right-wing lurch and its emphasis on promoting traditional values.
In previous years, MTVA hosted its own song contest, with the winner going on to represent Hungary in the continent-wide contest. But last month, the broadcaster announced that the country’s in-house contest would instead focus on the hit of the year.
That announcement was considered a signal that Hungary was planning not to compete in the upcoming 2020 contest, something confirmed last week when the list of competing countries was released.
A source at MTVA told The Guardian that staff believe the decision to withdraw from the contest was due to Eurovision’s pro-LGBTQ attitudes, which conflict with MTVA’s policy of discouraging positive coverage or portrayals of LGBTQ individuals or LGBTQ rights.
That follows a report by Hungarian website index.hu last week that claimed Hungary had withdrawn because Eurovision was perceived as “too gay,” and that a pro-government commentator had even called Eurovision a “homosexual flotilla.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has denied those claims, but has not offered any other explanation.
However, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has made its stance against homosexuality and embrace of “traditional values” well known. Orbán has even initiated a “family first” policy to incentivize marriage and childbearing in an effort to boost birth rates as the country’s population continues to decline.
Deputy Speaker István Boldog called for a boycott of Coca-Cola after the company launched an advertising campaign for a local music festival using photographs of a gay couple.
This is not the first time that Eurovision has been criticized for its LGBTQ-friendly nature.
In 2014, a Russian legislator attempted — and failed — to cancel the broadcast in Russia on the grounds that it “propagandizes homosexuality,” thus putting it into conflict with Russia’s controversial anti-gay propaganda law.
Russian politicians also went into an uproar after Conchita Wurst, an Austrian singer and drag queen, won Eurovision that same year, with some politicians calling for a boycott of the contest for promoting homosexuality or portraying it in a favorable light.
Despite that bluster, Hungary’s withdrawal is the first time a country has pulled out over social issues. Some have withdrawn over financial worries or geopolitical issues, only to return later.
Now in its 65th year, the 2020 contest will be hosted in Amsterdam and feature 41 countries, including Bulgaria and Ukraine, who are returning after a one-year hiatus.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs the contest, told The Guardian that “it is not uncommon for EBU members to have breaks in participation in the Eurovision song contest.”
“We hope to welcome their broadcaster MTVA back to the Eurovision song contest family soon,” the EBU said in a statement.
Treading well-worn queer cinema ground, Petersen Vargas' Some Nights I Feel Like Walking follows a tight-knit crew of young gay male hustlers working the streets of their own private Manila after dark.
Vargas sends the handheld camera roving behind the merry band of Uno (Jomari Angeles), Bay (Argel Saycon), Rush (Tommy Alejandrino), and Ge (Gold Aceron) on their nightly rounds in the city's margins. Peering over their shoulders as they cruise for clients in the bustling red light district, in public restrooms, inside an adult movie theater, the film smoothly maps out the guys' treacherous territory.
The FBI has arrested a Texas man for allegedly threatening to carry out a mass shooting at a local Pride event.
Joshua Cole, of Anson, Texas, allegedly posted a Facebook comment earlier this month criticizing the Abilene Pride Alliance for banning weapons and certain bags at its annual indoor festival, held September 20 at the Abilene Convention Center on the same day as the group's Pride parade.
The original poster argued the group could not legally stop people from carrying guns into a city-owned building and shared a screenshot of the event flyer listing the venue and restrictions.
My first protest, as my mother tells it, was as a toddler. In our Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego, circa 1970, she was moved to join a small group in opposition to some new construction. As she was moved, so was I, on four stroller wheels. My birth may have coincided with the weekend of the Stonewall Riots, but I didn't learn about that till much later.
And, of course, I have no memory of this inaugural outing with Mom to fight the power. Today, my mother looks at current events, disgusted by the White House, and wonders aloud whether protests such as the Oct. 18 No Kings Day actions across the country and beyond do much. At her age, she's certainly entitled to be winding down. Not that she was ever big on protests to begin with -- my first was her last, possibly her only.
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