An LGBT+ rights protest at the Poland-Germany border has shone a light on the growing disparity between the two nations on queer issues.
While Germany has progressed significantly on LGBT+ rights in the past few years, introducing same-sex marriage and banning conversion therapy, the picture is far bleaker in Poland – where nationalist politicians have fuelled a rise in public homophobia and anti-LGBT+ extremism.
Around 2,000 demonstrators stood up to homophobia on Saturday (September 5) with a protest held jointly by activists in the closely-connected border towns of Slubice, Poland, and Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany, which are separated by a symbolic bridge across the River Oder.
German protesters carried signs and banners expressing their love for their LGBT+ Polish neighbours, as the groups marched across the border.
“This is our response to what is happening in other parts of Poland, where LGBT-free zones are being created,” Kacper Kubiak of the Institute of Equality told Gazeta Lubuska.
Mewa Topolska, a teacher from Slubice and one of the organisers of the march, told Reuters: “The only way we can change people’s opinions is through visibility.
“We don’t have full queer rights in Poland — and won’t for a long time so the main [aim of the march] is solidarity with the Polish side.”
Stella, a care worker in Frankfurt an der Oder, told the outlet: “No one should judge people according to their race, religion or [sexuality]. We are all born different and we don’t choose how we are born.”
A handful of counter-protesters turned up on the Polish side of the border, Reuters reports, bringing with them a van daubed with anti-LGBT+ slogans.
Politicians have repeatedly stoked anti-LGBT+ hatred in Poland.
LGBT+ people are a popular punching bag for Poland’s conservative government, with right-wing president Andrzej Duda narrowly winning re-election in July after making homophobia one of the core planks of his campaign.
In a “family charter” published ahead of the election, Duda pledged to “prohibit the propagation of this ideology” in public institutions and “defend the institution of marriage” as defined as a “relationship between a women and a man”.
With days to go until the run-off vote, Duda also proposed an amendment to Poland’s constitution that would ban same-sex couples from adopting children. He said: “I am convinced that, thanks to this, children’s safety and concern for the good of children will be ensured to a much greater extent.”
The European Parliament passed a resolution that strongly condemned the concept of LGBT-free zones in December, noting that they are “part of a broader context of attacks against the LGBT+ community in Poland, which include growing hate speech by public and elected officials and public media, as well as attacks and bans on Pride marches”.
In just a matter of seconds, Firas Naboulsi, a 23-year-old drag queen and bartender living in Beirut, lost everything he had worked for.
“We heard the first explosion, then the second one happened,” Naboulsi said of the Aug. 4 blast that tore through the capital city’s port area.
The colossal chemical explosion nearly destroyed his apartment, but Naboulsi and his housemate managed to escape injury and carry a friend with a broken leg to the nearest hospital. The incident, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, killed more than 180 people, injured 6,000 and badly damaged the districts of Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh, famous for their centuries-old homes, art galleries, bars, restaurants and clubs.
“Going to this area, it just breaks me … We’ve lost most of the venues where we can be ourselves.”
FIRAS NABOULSI
In those districts, many LGBTQ people, like Naboulsi, also found tolerance and safety in a region not known for queer acceptance.
Naboulsi fled the conservative, Sunni-dominated northern city of Tripoli in 2018 for the relative freedom of Beirut. He said he found what he was looking for: acceptance, friends and a family he chose for himself. But now, following the blast, he said “it was all shattered.”
“Going to this area, it just breaks me,” he said of the torn-apart section of the city he calls home. “We’ve lost most of the venues where we can be ourselves in, and put aside that we’ve lost our jobs, our houses are damaged.”
Following the blast, Naboulsi’s parents, with whom he had not been in contact for two years, came to pick him up and take him back to his hometown. He said relatives had previously threatened him after he had revealed that he worked as a drag performer on social media, but he went anyway. The reunion, however, was short-lived.
“My parents are super religious, so my mom had this conversation with me where she was like, ‘Ah, you can’t stay here because my religion wouldn’t allow me to keep you here, because you’re gay, because you do a lot of things that we can’t accept,’” he said.
Volunteers clear the rubble in the Gemmayzeh neighborhood of Beirut on Aug. 7, 2020.AFP – Getty Images
Just three days after the blast, Naboulsi was back in Beirut. He said the feeling of rejection was more devastating this time than when he first left home.
“It hurt way more knowing with everything that happened in Beirut, you still … have to leave home because you’re gay,” he said. “I was so close to los[ing] my life, and the only thing you had to say was, ‘I can’t accept you, because my religion doesn’t allow me to.’”
The Arab world’s progressive enclave
Lebanon is considered relatively liberal in the Arab world, even though it remains one of the approximately 70 countries around the globe that still criminalizes homosexuality. Vocal advocates in the tiny Mediterranean country defend LGBTQ rights, and gay bars and clubs are allowed to operate. And while cases involving homosexuality still go to trial from time to time in the country, an 80-year old article in the penal code prosecuting homosexual relations has been undermined in recent years by a successful campaign waged by activist lawyers to obtain liberal judicial rulings, which have made it increasingly difficult to criminalize same-sex relationships.
In 2017, a judge in Lebanon ruled for the first time that homosexuality is not a crime, so long as it is not in public, with a minor or under coercion. However, some police officers still use the law as a basis to arrest and harass LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, according to Karim Nammour, an activist and lawyer for Lebanon-based nongovernmental organization Legal Agenda.
Elias, 24, who goes by the stage name of Melanie Coxxx performs during a Sunday drag queen show, called the drag ball, during Beirut Pride week, north of the capital Beirut on May 13, 2018.Hassan Ammar / AP
And while Lebanon is progressive when compared to its neighbors, Beirut is progressive when compared to the rest of Lebanon.
“When you want to look at Lebanon as a whole, at least from a personal queer perspective, you have to separate Beirut from the rest of it at least in terms of tolerance,” Sandra Melhem, an LGBTQ activist and owner of Beirut gay club Ego, said.
Melhem called the neighborhoods of Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh hubs for the city’s queer community and slammed government officials for storing nearly 3,000 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate in the heart of the densely populated capital city for years.
“They kind of took away our hope,” she said. “These are the streets we all live in — not all of us, but a lot of people that are young, that are artists, that are invested in changing the country.”
‘A sense of unity’
Melhem is among those who have turned their anger into action. When she saw that her LGBTQ neighbors had lost homes and didn’t have money to eat, she launched a fundraising campaign. She called out on social media to people who needed help and others who could provide it and was surprised by the response. She said the desire to help overcame a former lack of cohesion among different groups within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
“We got a lot of people who were keen on supporting this and started sending food provisions, hot meal donations, detergents, clothes [and] medications,” she said. “We got three registered nurses on board volunteering, two paramedics … we were actually able to go on ground and start working.”
More than 50 volunteers showed up, including some from Beirut’s LGBTQ community whom she had never met.
“For the first time in years, we are all working for one purpose: to get each other out of this mess. Honestly, the past two weeks have shown a sense of unity I have not seen in a very long time,” Melhem said.
LGBTQ activist and bar owner Sandra Melhem, right, organizes the distribution of food and supplies with volunteer Firas Naboulsi in Melhem’s Beirut home.Mohamed Muslemany
She turned her spacious two-room apartment into a storage space for neatly stacked food trays, cases of bottled water and piles of care packages tailored to specific needs.
Omran Gharib, 26, a registered nurse, was among those who answered Melhem’s appeal on Instagram. He paid home visits to the injured to change dressings and listen to their concerns.
“The most common thing was they were scared of what happened, and they cannot handle the fact that they lost it all,” Gharib said. “They lost the places where they had so much memories, and now there is no place to be like themselves.”
Andrea Nagerian, a 23-year-old drag queen and makeup artist, lost his home in the blast and had to run to a hospital after suffering multiple cuts and internal bleeding. He stayed at Melhem’s home during his recovery and then joined the aid effort.
“The only way we can really use our anger to our benefit is by helping people or helping ourselves to get through the trauma,” Nagerian said. “Right now, we are really focusing on helping … marginalized groups as much as possible … people who are in the depths of poverty.”
Naboulsi has also found solace in helping. After repairing his ruined apartment enough to make it habitable, he spends most of his day at Melhem’s house.
“I’m around my friends and at the same time helping people, so I don’t have this free time to keep thinking about what happened, to keep thinking about what’s going to happen,” he said.
The aid and outreach from the city’s LGBTQ community to other communities following the explosion also helped to change some hearts and minds, according to Melhem.
“We’re entering areas I would never have sent the boys to if they looked very flamboyantly gay. You know, they would be harassed,” she said. “Now when they’re going and they’re lending a helping hand to marginalized communities, people in need … you see that there’s acceptance from the people who previously we would not ever have gone to. So I think it is also lifting the threshold of tolerance.”
While many in Beirut’s queer community are still mourning the loss of homes and popular venues in their neighborhood, Melhem said she’s hopeful that this once-vibrant hub that provided freedom and acceptance can be revived. Her next step is to set up a committee tasked with disbursing donated funds to help people rebuild, and there is also a grassroots movement composed of activists urging desperate residents not to sell to developers seeking damaged but valuable property.
Nagerian said he believes the community can come back even stronger than before.
“I’m someone who lost their home, got severely injured, and I experienced first-hand the explosion, and I’m saying there’s a glimpse of hope — even if it’s bare, and you have to believe in it and push forward and try to use this experience to your advantage and build a new version of what you want to see in the world.”
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday pardoned a United States Marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the country nearly six years ago, sparking condemnation from activists who described the move as a “mockery of justice.”
Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was jailed in 2015 for killing Jennifer Laude near a former U.S. navy base. A trial court signed off on his early release last week for good conduct, but was blocked by an appeal from Laude’s lawyers.
Dictionary.com has released its “biggest ever update”, revising definitions and adding 650 new words relating to race, mental health, climate and the LGBT+ community.
The dictionary has revised the definitions of many LGBT+ words to put “people first”, including replacing the word “homosexual” with the words “gay, gay man, or gay woman”.
The site explained: “For example, we now define gayness as ‘gay or lesbian sexual orientation or behavior’ compared to the outmoded gloss of ‘homosexuality’. These changes alone affect over 50 entries.
“The previously used terms, homosexual and homosexuality, originated as clinical language, and dictionaries have historically perceived such language as scientific and unbiased.
“But homosexual and homosexuality are now associated with pathology, mental illness, and criminality, and so imply that being gay – a normal way of being – is sick, diseased, or wrong.”
The online dictionary has also given Pride – with a capital P – its own entry “to better document the specific, widespread use of the term”.
Dictionary.com added that the revisions will “help eliminate heterosexual bias in language, they also help better convey the diversity and richness of… human sexual experience and identity”.
Other new LGBT+ entries on Dictionary.com include the words “ace, ambisextrous, asexual, biromantic, deadname, gender-inclusive, gender diversity, and trans+”.
Another major update to the dictionary was the capitalisation of the word Black when used in reference to people.
“Capitalising Black confers the due dignity to the shared identity, culture, and history of Black people,” the site said.
“Dictionaries are not merely a linguistic exercise or academic enterprise.
“What are the effects of Black, referring to human beings, being grouped together with black, which can mean, among other things, ‘wicked’?
“The effects are social. They are psychological. They are personal. How words are entered into the dictionary – especially words concerning our personal identities – have real effects on real people in the real world.”
Dictionary.com added: “Change is constant, a principle that’s true in language as in life.
“No matter what is happening in the world, we’re committed to documenting and describing – and helping you stay informed on and, yes, sometimes entertained by – the English language as it evolves.”
Prejudice and discrimination against transgender people is common in Haiti, but at least one organization is providing a haven where they can feel welcome.
The Kay Trans Haiti center in the capital, Port-au-Prince, provides lodging and care for up to 10 transgender people. Funded by a Spanish health care company and the United Nations Development Program, Kay Trans Haiti is open to transgender people who have been victims of verbal or physical abuse. It provides services including a psychologist free of charge, and allows residents to stay for up to a year.
Once people graduate from the center, the program pays their rent for up to a year, after which they must become self-sufficient.
Kervens Mesidor sits on the floor of his bedroom eating a serving of rice and beans at the Kay Trans Haiti center, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020.Dieu Nalio Chery / AP file
Residents say the neighborhood surrounding the center has gradually become more accepting of them, creating a safe island in a city where they can often feel vulnerable and subject to abuse at any moment.
Haiti’s LGBTQ community continues to experience social stigma. Thousands of people in July marched against gay and transgender rights in a rally organized by some churches demanding that President Jovenel Moise rescind a decree that rewrites the 185-year-old penal code recognizing same-sex unions and tacitly allowing homosexuality.
In 2016, an LGBTQ cultural festival in Port-au-Prince was canceled after organizers received threats and a local official, calling it a violation of moral values, sought to ban it.
Laurent Voltus, a resident at the Kay Trans Haiti center, exhales cigarette smoke while dancing with friends at a club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2020.Dieu Nalio Chery / AP file
In 2017, Haiti’s Senate passed two bills targeting LGBTQ Haitians. One would formalize a ban on same-sex marriage, and prohibit public demonstrations in favor of LGBTQ rights.
Residents of the Kay Trans center can bring their partners there, go out to clubs, and shop without fear of mistreatment from neighborhood shopkeepers, who have become increasing friendly and welcoming.
One of the residents, Semi Kaefra Alisha Fermond, 24, said she had a traumatic childhood because neighbors didn’t want her to play with their children.
“I am proud of myself now because I can wear women’s clothes and go everywhere,’’ she said. “At my mother’s home I can’t be like that.”
Same-sex couples can apply to have religious weddings in Northern Ireland from today (1 September), with ceremonies set to begin later this month.
Gay weddings began in Northern Ireland in February, but so far couples have only been allowed to undergo civil weddings – with a further wait for regulations to be amended to allow religious weddings and for the conversion of existing civil partnerships into marriages.
Religious bodies can also choose to opt in to provide same-sex weddings from Tuesday. With a statutory 28-day waiting period, the earliest date for a same-sex religious wedding will be 29 September.
Northern Ireland gay couples ‘can have the church wedding they have longed for’.
The reverend Chris Hudson, minister of All Souls Church in Belfast – a member of the Non-Subscribing Church of Ireland – welcomed the law change.
He said: “This is great news for couples who wish to celebrate their marriage in church, embraced by family, friends and the love of God.
“I have already been speaking to a number of couples who have been waiting for this day so they can finally have the church wedding that they have longed for.”
Robyn Peoples and Sharni Edwards kiss after they became the first legally married same sex couple in Northern Ireland on February 11, 2020. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Patrick Corrigan of Love Equality said: “Today is a milestone for equality in Northern Ireland. After years of campaigning, same-sex couples of faith can finally register to marry in a church or other religious setting.
“In line with our campaign, we are pleased that the law will protect religious freedom, and that churches will neither be compelled nor prevented from offering wedding ceremonies to same-sex couples.
“This is an important issue for many couples in Northern Ireland, who have previously been prevented by law from marrying in their own church.”
Calls to ‘finish the job’ by permitting civil partnership conversions.
Corrigan added: “We now urge the government to finish the job of marriage equality in Northern Ireland, by allowing couples in civil partnerships to convert to married status if they so wish.”
Couples in the rest of the UK are already permitted to convert civil partnerships into marriages, but the Northern Ireland Office has been slow to bring in the measure – meaning the 1,200 couples who had already entered civil partnerships before the introduction of same-sex marriage are currently unable to marry.
On August 19, 2020, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released its draft 2020 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy. According to the draft, this policy “supersedes and replaces the 2012 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy in its entirety.”
Human Rights Watch writes today to raise its most significant concerns with the draft policy. Given that USAID has provided less than five full business days, with a last-minute extension of 2 days, to provide comments and feedback on the 40-page draft policy, we urge further discussion of the policy, including through meaningful and transparent civil society engagement, to ensure that it reflects the needs and opportunities of the current moment to advance gender equality globally. Such a short window for written comments, particularly during a global pandemic, is insufficient and makes engagement by many non-US-based organizations impacted by the policy nearly impossible.
Noting that our concerns with the draft policy are much broader, Human Rights Watch takes this opportunity to raise two overarching concerns:
“Unalienable rights” is a term with no legal significance and subverts the established framework of internationally recognized and binding human rights.
The draft policy begins by stating that USAID “believes that gender equality and women’s empowerment are fundamental for the realization of unalienable human rights and key to effective and sustainable development outcomes.” Human Rights Watch opposes the introduction of the term “unalienable” into the phrase “realization of human rights.” Internationally agreed-upon and binding human rights treaties, and mechanisms for interpreting human rights obligations of states, already exist at international and regional levels. Inserting the term “unalienable” into the USAID gender policy appears to reflect a shift by the agency away from internationally recognized human rights and continues a pattern whereby the United States shies away from its international human rights commitments.
The term “unalienable rights” is clearly a reference to the work of the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, which Human Rights Watch has consistently criticized[1] as advancing the harmful idea that governments can decide which rights to respect and that the United States can unilaterally establish a hierarchy of rights. Such an approach is likely to fragment and weaken the international human rights system rather than strengthen its promise of greater gender equality and the realization of all rights for all people.
Throughout the draft, the policy also qualifies rights with terms like “basic” or “legal” rights, reducing the process of respecting and promoting women’s human rights simply to ensuring their recognition in domestic law, without recognizing the broader context for the realization of those rights. Legal barriers may exist that prevent the realization of human rights, and removing those barriers should be a priority. However, Human Rights Watch research[2] has repeatedly shown that governments often violate women’s human rights or fail to achieve gender equality by failing to implement laws or policies, or by accepting rights-infringing social norms or practices. The human rights obligations of states to achieve gender equality cannot be reduced to ending de jure discrimination at the expense of the full realization of human rights and achievement of substantive equality.
As a result of this distorted framing of rights, the draft policy fails to adequately address women’s economic rights, including rights to health, to dignity and safety at work, and to equitable distribution of property. While global health is a significant proportion of USAID funded work, the draft policy entirely omits the right to health and to non-discrimination against women in accessing it, including any discussion of the importance of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. When discussing harassment in the workplace, the draft policy fails to mention the significant step forward made last year to adopt global standards through a treaty aimed at ending violence and harassment at work.[3] This oversight detracts from global efforts to ratify the treaty. Further, when highlighting the importance of women’s property rights, the policy should address the need to ensure the equitable distribution of matrimonial property, including at the dissolution of marriage.
The policy lacks an inclusive approach to addressing gender equality that recognizes how gender discrimination intersects with other forms of discrimination.
The 2012 policy was explicitly “inclusive of all women and men, girls and boys, regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced displacement or HIV/AIDS status.” By glaring contrast, this draft policy makes no reference to gender identity, sexual orientation or sex characteristics, religion, ethnicity or race, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced displacement, or HIV/AIDS status as intersecting identities that might affect the achievement of gender equality. Age and disability are mentioned in just one passing reference. This omission raises concerns that implementation of the policy will be insufficiently attentive to intersectional forms of discrimination.
Human Rights Watch research has shown that while all women and girls face some forms of discrimination that constitute obstacles to achieving gender equality, not all women and girls experience discrimination in the same way. Marginalization based on various identities increases the risk of human rights abuses, and requires increased attention. For example, in Lebanon, transgender women are at heightened risk of being arrested, questioned, or treated violently by law enforcement because of their gender identity.[4] In the United States, Black women are more than three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications[5] as white women, and low-income women and women of color are more likely to die from cervical cancer than white women.[6] In India, women and girls with disabilities face particular challenges accessing justice after being subjected to sexual violence.[7] Governments’ human rights obligations to end discrimination require them to consider these intersecting forms of discrimination, and doing so can improve development efforts by donor governments like the United States.
It is particularly harmful to strike inclusive language from this policy at a moment of heightened awareness in the United States of the intersecting forms of discrimination that lead to disproportionate rates of mortality and morbidity from Covid-19 and other diseases, from impacts of climate change, and from state violence. The draft policy’s disregard for the current global context is further evident in its failure to address the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Evidence[8]already shows how these global crises are disproportionately harming people based on intersecting marginalized identities, including gender identities.
* * *
USAID’s 2012 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy stated that “gender equality and female empowerment are now universally recognized as core development objectives, fundamental for the realization of human rights, and key to effective and sustainable development outcomes.” Gender equality is instrumentally important for the realization of human rights, but the achievement of equality and non-discrimination is also a human rights obligation in and of itself. The 2020 draft policy should be substantially revised to reflect a genuine commitment to equality and non-discrimination.
Earlier this month, Armenia’s Criminal Court of Appeal ruled there had not been a proper investigation into a violent homophobic attack two years ago against a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists.
The court ordered a re-investigation, giving Armenia’s law enforcement agencies a second chance to deliver justice in the case.
In August 2018, a crowd of about 30 men violently assaulted the activists in Shurnoukh, a village in southern Armenia. The crowd shouted homophobic slurs and threats, demanding the activists leave the village. They chased members of the group, hitting, kicking, and throwing stones at them, and shouting “Get rid of those gays!” At least six activists were injured, including one person who sustained a broken nose.
Police questioned several of the attackers. But by November 2018, the government had granted some of the assailants amnesty, and the authorities decided not to prosecute the rest.
The LGBT rights group PINK Armenia challenged the decision not to prosecute the assailants, first in a district court, which found no violation, and then to the Criminal Court of Appeals, which found that the decision was not substantiated. The court also stated that the investigation failed to address the severe psychological pain suffered by the victims.
For years, the Armenian government has failed to effectively investigate anti-LGBT violence in the country, and homophobia remains widespread. A government bill in the works that seeks to address issues of equality has faced criticism because it does not include sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for protection from discrimination.
The court’s decision offers authorities the opportunity to provide justice for victims of anti-LGBT violence. Even two years later, holding perpetrators accountable for this attack would send a strong message that violence against LGBT people in Armenia will not be tolerated. It would be a step in the right direction in the fight against homophobia in the country.
Maltese police are investigating the shocking murder of a gay couple shot dead in their own home when three gunmen stormed in and raided the property.
Ivor Maciejowski, a British art dealer, and Christian Pandolfino, a Maltese doctor, were described by friends as two “beautiful souls” who were “always together”.
Police were called to their Sliema home at around 10.30pm on 18 August following reports of gunfire. Both men were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds, Maciejowski on the top floor of the property and Pandolfino on the lower floor.
Officers are now hunting three gunmen who were seen on CCTV entering the house at 10.19pm and leaving at 10.23pm. They are said to have been driven away from the scene by a fourth person who waited in a white car nearby.
Police have not yet disclosed a motive for the crime, but the LGBT+ group Malta Pride suggested that it could have been a “botched hold up”.
“Tragic is an understatement,” they said in a statement on Facebook. “Although details of the case are still emerging, it seems that this was a botched hold up and not necessarily related to being a homophobic hate crime.
“It would be sensible to wait and see at this point without making any rash conclusions.”
The couple were known to keep a large amount of fine art in their home, which Maciejowski sometimes posted to his Instagram account. Officers say there are signs of a struggle inside the property but have not revealed whether any valuables were taken.
According to the Times of Malta the gay couple had been together for at least four years, enjoyed working out and were regulars at MedAsia Playa beach club in Sliema.
Tributes are pouring in for the gay couple as their loved ones process their shocking and sudden deaths. Jordan Munn, who has known the couple for years, said friends were stunned by the news.
“They were just really, really great people. Selfless and funny and just friendly and fantastic and fabulous in every way,” he said.
Another friend, Rebecca Dimech, described the couple as “beautiful, kind souls” and “amazing people that loved each other very much”.
Pandolfino’s nephew, Luca Pandolfino, said his family had lost two “gentle giants”.
“We all are still trying to make sense of things during these tragic times,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Yesterday the world lost two gentle giants who were the two nicest people you could ever meet, keep your loved ones close because you never know when they could be taken away from you. Rest in peace uncle Chris and Ivor.”
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has used an event commemorating the end of WWI as an opportunity to launch yet another barb at LGBT+ people.
The far-right leader made the comments at a national event to inaugurate a monument commemorating the Treaty of Trianon, which was signed after the end of the war.
He called upon Hungary’s neighbouring countries to unite to preserve their Christian roots as western Europe “experiments” with same-sex families, immigration and atheism.
“Western Europe had given up on … a Christian Europe, and instead experiments with a godless cosmos, rainbow families, migration and open societies,” Orbán said in a speech.
He declared that the new monument, a 100-metre long and 4-metre wide ramp carved into a street near Budapest’s parliament building, was a call to central European nations to strengthen their alliance and rally around what he called the “Polish flagship”.
His speech will have reaffirmed the country’s close relationship with Poland, Hungary’s main ally in central Europe and equally conservative in its opposition to LGBT+ people.
In parallel with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), Orbán’s administration has pursued policies that persistently erode LGBT+ rights and freedoms.
One of his very first acts after his pandemic power grab was to strip away the ability for trans people to legally change gender, an act that drew fierce condemnation from international human rights groups.
The move had the effect of legally erasing the Hungarian trans people, and it is already driving them to suicide.
Unfortunately the homophobic sentiment has shown no sign of improving as the lockdown eases; Last weekend, two rainbow flags were torn down from municipal buildings in Budapest.
Among the culprits was a Hungarian politician, who was seen using a ladder to climb Budapest City Hall to reach the flag.
He was filmed by the far-right Our Homeland Movement, which proudly shared the video online declaring that “this anti-family symbol has no place on the street, especially on the facade of the capital’s local government”.
It prompted a warning from the US Embassy that neo-Nazi groups should not be tolerated.
