Viktor Orban (center right) presiding over a session of the Hungarian Parliament. – Photo: Elekes Andor, via Wikimedia.
Hungary’s parliament has passed a resolution empowering the government to hold a referendum on LGBTQ issues, as part of a ploy to weaponize anti-LGBTQ sentiment to help the Fidesz-led conservative government cling to power in an election year.
On Tuesday, the Fidesz majority coalition voted on party-lines votes to approve four referendum questions related to sex education programs in schools and the presentation of sexual content in the media.
The questions will ask voters whether they support sexual orientation lessons for minors in public schools without parental consent; whether they back the “promotion’ of gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors; whether they support “unrestricted sexual media content for minors that affects their development”; and the “display of gender-sensitive media content to minors.”
“The Hungarian government proposes that citizens should have a chance to express their stance on the issues of gender propaganda,” deputy minister Balazs Orban told parliament, advocating on behalf of passing the referenda. “We are committed. We believe that we…have to say no to LGBTQ propaganda in schools carried out with the help of NGOs and media, without parental consent.”
Balazs Orbán also argued that holding the referendum on the same day as the general election would save taxpayers money, although it is up to President Janos Ader to set the date.
Ader, an ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has not yet set a date for the general parliamentary election, which is expected to be held in April, Reuters reports.
Viktor Orbán, a populist right-winger who has been prime minister since 2010, pushed for a referendum after the government passed a series of laws attacking LGBTQ rights, setting limits on schools’ ability to teach about homosexuality or transgender issues, and curtailing LGBTQ portrayals in media — even going so far as to shut down liberal-leaning media institutions.
Orbán, who has sought to cast Western influences as a threat to Christian values and railed against affirming or acknowledging non-traditional gender roles and sexual orientations, has argued that the referendum is necessary to protect children and foster family values.
But critics note that Orbán is expected to face his first competitive election in more than a decade, and have accused him of using the referendum to rally social conservatives to the polls in the hope they’ll back Fidesz parliamentary candidates.
A transgender advocacy group has created a crowdsourced map of trans-friendly bathrooms in Idaho to help residents find facilities they can use safely.
State lawmakers recently passed a law prohibiting people from entering bathrooms that don't align with their assigned sex at birth. The law, which took effect earlier this month, applies to government-owned buildings and private businesses open to the public, including gas stations, restaurants, entertainment venues, and hospitals.
A first violation of the law -- which opponents have dubbed a "bathroom ban" -- is punishable by up to one year in prison. A second or third violation could carry up to five years, or potentially life in prison if prosecutors invoke the state's "persistent violator" statute.
A restaurant and bar in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, has been fined in two separate anti-transgender discrimination cases after a state commission found that it barred a trans woman from using the women's restroom and selectively scanned patrons' IDs in a way that targeted transgender people.
Last September, the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission levied a $2,000 fine against Hideout Arcade Bar & Grille over an April 2023 incident in which a transgender woman was denied entry.
Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an anti-human trafficking bill into law that contains provisions repealing parts of an existing state law that allowed people with HIV to be charged with enhanced criminal penalties if they engaged in prostitution and did not disclose their status to clients.
Previously, people living with HIV could face harsher penalties than people without HIV for engaging in the same illicit activity. For example, a person without HIV who was charged with prostitution would face only a misdemeanor, while a person with HIV who engaged in the same behavior could be charged with a felony.
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