Hungary’s deputy prime minister wants to take away children from loving parents who help them transition
Zsolt Semjen, the deputy prime minister of Hungary, wants a constitutional ban on “gender propaganda”. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty)
The deputy prime minister of Hungary, Zsolt Semjen, has called for a constitutional ban on “gender propaganda” to supposedly “protect children”.
Although Hungary has already legally erased trans people this year, in an interview Demokrata magazine, which is aligned with the government, Semjen now wants to ban “gender propaganda” in the country’s constitution.
Appearing on the cover of the 4 November issues of the magazine, according to Reuters Semjen was quoted as saying: “Why is private life not enough for [gays], why do they want official recognition?”
He also said that LGBT+ people should not be able have families, saying: “They should not be called family, because that is a sacred notion.
“They should not adopt children, because children’s right to healthy development is stronger than homosexual couples’ need for a child.”
According to the queer Hungarian magazine Humen, Semjen added in the article that parents who help their children transition should have them taken away, and doctors who do the same should lose their licenses forever.
The call for a ‘gender propaganda’ ban comes the same year that Hungary legally erased trans people.
On 19 May, 2020, lawmakers in Hungary overwhelmingly voted to end legal gender recognition for trans people, bringing into law prime minister Victor Orbán’s cruel crusade against the country’s most marginalised and vulnerable.
Around 133 National Assembly members voted in favour of stripping what little rights trans Hungarians once exercised.
The bill, which effectively erases trans Hungarians, was also suggested by deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjen.
Article 33 prevents trans people in Hungary from correcting the gender marker listed on their official birth certificates and other identification documents by amending the Hungarian Registry Act.
A memo accompanying the bill ominously reasoned that, to the government, “completely changing one’s biological sex is impossible” and so it should not “be changed in the civil registry either”.
Senior politicians defended the bill by claiming that in erasing trans people, the government will be “creating legal clarity”.
