April 10, 2022

Activists defeat Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ referendum

topic:	LGBT Rights
located:	Hungary
editor:	Abby Klinkenberg

Although Hungary’s notorious right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán came away with yet another “crushing victory” in the country’s parliamentary election on 3 April, human and civil rights activists came away with at least one success: thwarting Orbán’s anti-LGBTQ+ referendum.

The referendum, which coincided with Hungary’s parliamentary election, sought to curb the scope of sex-education programs in schools, particularly in terms of banning content relating to gender-affirming surgeries. As Hungary’s politics drift further away from liberal European norms, the failure of this referendum suggests that progressive dissent continues to endure in the face of increasing right-wing pressure.

Having first assumed the office in 2010, this upcoming term will be Orbán’s fourth as prime minister of Hungary - and his most decisive victory. Orbán’s Fidesz-Magyar Polgári Szövetség (“Hungarian Civic Alliance”) party won 55.16 percent of the vote, enough to tack on an additional seat to the party’s supermajority in parliament, which now stands at 134 of 199 seats. Despite predictions of a tight race and the unprecedented deployment of a full election monitoring mission by the European Union’s Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the election ultimately proved to be clear-cut in favour of the incumbent party.

Alongside the typical parliamentary election ran a country-wide referendum on four questions relating to LGBTQ+ issues: (1) “Do you support holding information events on sexual orientation to minors, in public education institutions without parental consent?”; (2) “Do you support the promotion of gender-reassignment treatment to minors?”; (3) “Do you support the unrestricted exposure of minors to sexually explicit media content, that may influence their development?”; and (4) “Do you support showing minors media content on gender changing procedures?”

Those familiar with contemporary developments in the United States relating to recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the name of protecting children will see parallels in the language of the referendum, which a joint statement issued by ten LGBTQ+ and human rights groups described as “particularly vile.” In addition to violating “the dignity of LGBTQI people” and “suggest[ing] that young people are harmed by just hearing about sexual and gender minorities, “the wording is intentionally manipulative: parents’ natural concern for and protection of their child is being exploited for political purposes.”

For Orbán and his Fidesz party, the referendum is part of a wider culture war: at a rally on 15 March, Orbán said, “we will… win the referendum with which we will stop at our borders the gender madness sweeping across the Western world.”

Given the decisive results of the parliamentary election in Orbán’s favour and the lack of progressive political opposition (the opposing coalition oddly contained six parties, one of which is also associated with the far right), one would be forgiven for assuming that Orbán’s anti-LGBTQ+ referendum would also be passed with flying colours. Surprisingly, progressive forces prevailed! Well, sort of.

While the vast majority (over 90 percent) of valid votes were cast in favour of restricting what has been called “LGBT+ propaganda,” the referendum was ultimately declared invalid because it did not reach the required threshold of 50 percent of the electorate casting a valid vote. Ten Hungarian LGBTQ+ and human rights groups were instrumental in this fight, calling “for citizens to give invalid answers to the referendum, circling both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for every question to ‘help ensure that the government’s exclusionary referendum does not reach the validity threshold.”

The invalidation of Orbán’s referendum has stalled his momentum in enacting increasingly stringent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, which has been met with legal action at the European Union-level. As the European Union continues to pressure Hungary to conform with liberal European norms and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the failure of this referendum ensures that Orbán no longer has the ability to justify his human-rights violations in terms of popular sentiment. While the fight to secure LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary is far from over, this is a victory to be celebrated.

To support the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary, consider donating to the Háttér Society, “the largest and oldest currently-operating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) organisation in the country.”

Image by Raphael Renter

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