Hungary bans Virginia Woolf’s ‘Orlando’ and other LGTBI+-themed works from being sold near churches


Hungarian booksellers must conceal works for minors with LGTBI+ themes with closed packaging, according to the homophobic regulations passed, which even prohibit selling any copy with passages on homosexuality or sex change within 200 meters of a school or a church. These limitations are specified in a recent decree that includes a guide on the application of the anti-LGTBI+ law, approved in June, and which has caused enormous uncertainty due to the ambiguity of its wording.

Following the regulations to the letter, the sale of a masterpiece like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, a novel that chronicles over three centuries the life of an English nobleman who becomes a woman, would be prohibited near a school or a church.

Sappho, Ovid and others

Other classics, from Sappho’s poems to Ovid’s Metamorphosis, from verses by the French Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, to novels by the German Thomas Mann or dramas and sonnets by the English William Shakespeare, among many, many others, would also be banned or censored. The ultra-nationalist Hungarian government insists that the legislation, which is part of a broader law that increases penalties for paedophilia and creates a database of sex offenders, is necessary to protect children.

But critics, including not only the opposition and human rights groups, but also the European Commission and most EU governments, see the law as a way to discriminate against and stigmatize the LGTBI+ community. Since the beginning of September it is forbidden to display and place in shop windows products aimed at minors that present sexuality in an “arbitrary” way, as well as sex change or homosexuality.

In addition, books with such content must be displayed in bookstores separately and in distinctive packaging, although the government also does not specify whether the packaging can be transparent or not. In July, a subsidiary of the country’s largest bookstore chain, Lira Konyv, was fined the equivalent of about 800 euros for failing to clearly label a children’s book depicting families with children with disabilities.The argument was that consumer protection rules had been violated by failing to indicate that the book contained “material that deviates from the norm”. The argument was that consumer protection rules had been violated by not indicating that the book contained “material that deviates from the norm”.

Ambiguities and arbitrariness

“It is unclear what it means to ban the arbitrary presentation of sexuality and sex change, since on the basis of these criteria masterpieces of Hungarian and world literature can be banned,” the Federation of Publishers and Bookstores (MKKE) recently said in a statement.

Tamás Dombos, a member of the board of the Háttér Society, which defends LGTBI+ rights, explained to Efe that “the decree was not thought out,” and points out that the text speaks of publications aimed at minors, but does not specify what would happen with books intended for adults or where the difference is.

“It does not clarify the basic dilemmas that were already present in the law, such as what it means to propagate or present these topics,” continues the activist, calling the decree “ridiculous” and difficult to put into practice. Dombos stresses that it is precisely the ambiguous nature of the law that makes it dangerous, since “there could be a very restrictive interpretation, which could even go as far as banning” certain publications and books.

Protests and disobedience

Already when the law was passed in June there were protests. In July the European Commission opened proceedings against Hungary for discriminating against the LGTBI+ community, while in Hungary several organisations announced that they would disobey the law. This month’s issue of Elle magazine featured three different covers, each with a gay, lesbian and straight couple, under the slogan ‘One Love’. Elle’s editor-in-chief, Katalin Gál, explained to the online newspaper 168ora that the covers are not scandalous but the law, and that not for a moment did they think about not publishing them. The aim of the law, Gál believes, is to “force self-censorship”.

A petition against “the homophobic law created on the Russian model” has collected more than 130,000 signatures, while media companies such as the German RTL group and the American HBO have protested against the legislation.

Still, for equality

A pesar of the policies of the prime minister, the ultra-nationalist Viktor Orbán, which, according to Dobos, will continue until the elections in the spring of 2022, several polls published in the last two months point to the fact that the majority of Hungarians are in favor of full equality in rights for LGTBI+ people. According to recent poll data, same-sex marriage is supported by 59 % of Hungarians, up from 33 % in 2019. And an overwhelming majority of 83% do not believe the claim that someone can become homosexual after hearing about sexual orientation at school.

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