Social Issues

EU’s Von der Leyen says Hungary’s anti-gay laws a ‘shame’

Brussels, Jun 23 (EFE).- A bill in Hungary that would ban schools from teaching about homosexuality or gender change issues is a “shame” and goes against European Union values, Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

“This bill clearly discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and it goes against all the fundamental values of the EU,” the president of the European Commission told a joint press conference with the Belgian prime minister.

“I have instructed my responsible commissioners to write a letter to the Hungarian authorities expressing our legal concerns before the bill enters into force,” she added.

The bill to ban LGBTI+ content in schools, pinned to a broader law on tougher penalties for pedophilia, was passed by lawmakers on June 15.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s hyper-traditionalist government has overseen a series of laws stripping back the rights of the LGTBQ+ community and a number of his Fidesz party members have used homophobic slurs in speeches.

Orban’s government has all but prohibited same-sex adoption, banned trans people from legally changing their status and altered the contsitutional definition of marriage to state that a union can only be between a man and a woman. EFE

lzu/jt/mp

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