The European Commission will start legal proceedings against Hungary and Poland after accusing the conservative countries of violating the rights of LGBT people.
The unelected commission stated in a press release on Thursday that in the case of Hungary, the legal procedure was related to several issues, including a newly adopted law banning the teaching of gender ideology or homosexuality to children.
The EU’s powerful executive branch argued: “Hungary has failed to explain why the exposure of children to LGBTIQ content as such would be detrimental to their well-being or not in line with the best interests of the child.”
The European Commission also claimed that Hungary limited the right to freedom of expression by making the publisher of an LGBT children’s book write a disclaimer stating that the book depicts forms of “behaviour deviating from traditional gender roles”.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, for his part, has insisted that “education in schools must not be in conflict with the will of parents; it must at most be supplementary, its form and content must be clearly defined and it must be subject to parental consent,” adding: “parents also rightly expect that on platforms used by our children, pornography, sexuality for its own sake, homosexuality and gender reassignment programs should not be available.”
Prime Minister Orbán has criticised the EU for its outrage over the law, stating earlier this month that the bloc were acting like “colonialists”.
“They behave like colonialists. They want to dictate what laws should take effect in another country, they want to tell us how to live our lives and how to behave,” Prime Minister Orbán said.
“If we allow others to tell us how we should live, who should be allowed to live in Hungary, how we should organise our lives and raise our children, we will be lost,” Orbán noted in a separate comment.
Regarding Poland, the Commission has objected to so-called “LGBT-ideology free zones”, stating: “The Commission is concerned that these declarations may violate EU law regarding non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.”
Despite EU anger over Poland’s stance on LGBT issues, a poll of Polish people conducted last year revealed that 62 per cent were opposed to same-sex marriage, and just 22 supported the idea.
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