Hungary Bars LGBTQ Content for Children as Orban Eyes Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban intensified his crackdown against the LGBTQ community less than a year before elections by outlawing content for children that can be deemed to “promote homosexuality.”

Parliament approved the legislation backed by Orban’s ruling Fidesz party that was originally aimed at creating an electronic database of people convicted of pedophilia. Some opposition lawmakers boycotted Tuesday’s vote while others backed it.

Thousands protested in Budapest on Monday against the bill’s anti-LGBTQ provisions, which Orban’s government paired with pedophilia in what critics say was an effort to divide a political opposition that is uniting for the first time in parliamentary elections against Orban.

Fidesz and the opposition alliance are running neck and neck in opinion polls, making next year’s vote the most closely-fought ballot in more than a decade.

Read more: Same-Sex Parenthood Draws Unexpected Support in Hungary

Orban’s focus on anti-LGBTQ issues mimics the political play book used by Poland’s nationalist government, Hungary’s closest ally in the European Union, where the incumbent president won a second term after attacking sexual minorities.

It also builds on previous legislation adopted in Hungary last year, including putting an effective ban on adoption by same-sex partners and enshrining in the constitution that marriage is possible only between a man and a woman.

Since his return to power in 2010, Orban has sought to extend his influence over the courts, media, education and civil society, prompting EU probes over the erosion of the rule of law.

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