News (World)

Germany & France join EU nations suing Hungary over anti-LGBTQ+ law

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban
Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban Photo: Kremlin.ru

Germany and France have joined 13 other countries in the European Union (E.U.) that are suing Hungary over a 2021 anti-LGBTQ+ law that has been likened to both Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and a Russian law criminalizing LGBTQ+ “propaganda.” The two countries are two of the most powerful in the E.U.

The E.U. announced the suit last July against the member state. “The European Commission today decided to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice of the E.U. over a Hungarian law which discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” an E.U. statement released at the time read.

“Germany has joined the ECJ proceedings of [the European Commission] against anti-queer laws in #Hungary,” the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted on April 8. “We stand by the side of the #LGBTQI community. The common values of the EU are the DNA of our free & open society. Diversity is our strength.”

“France and Germany join the Commission, together with about 15 other states and the Parliament, to counter the Hungarian ‘anti-propaganda’ #LGBT law before the EU Court of Justice!” out French liberal member of the European Parliament Pierre Karleskind tweeted. “A real front for human rights is being established in Europe!”

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the European Parliament have also applied to join the suit, according to Politico.

Hungary’s so-called “Child Protection Act” bans LGBTQ+ content in the media and restricts how sexual orientation and gender identity get discussed in schools. In a video posted along with Karleskind’s tweet, Canadian-born Hungarian member of the European Parliament Katalin Cseh called the law “a shameful piece of homophobic legislation directly copy-pasted from the playbooks of Vladimir Putin.”

“This law goes really against all the freedoms of the European Union,” Karleskind added in the video.

Hungarian President Viktor Orban has defended the law, insisting in 2021, “This is not against homosexuality. It’s about the right of the kids and the parents.” Rhetoric from supporters of the bill was similar to that of supporters of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the U.S., saying that the point of the bill is to fight pedophilia and support parents’ rights.

Following the law’s passage in June 2021, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Hungary “has no business being in the European Union anymore.” The following month, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to condemn the law “in the strongest possible terms.”

“This law puts homosexuality and gender reassignment on a par with pornography,” President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said at the time. “This law uses the protection of children, to which we are all committed, as an excuse to severely discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. This law is disgraceful.”

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