Hungary launches a campaign against transhumans in the fight against coronavirus. It wants to legally "erase" them
While in the Czech Republic, even under the ongoing state of emergency, all planned measures must be approved by the government, in Hungary it is Viktor Orbán who has become the de facto unlimited ruler. And he certainly makes no secret of his lack of sympathy for the LGBT community. Perhaps that is why Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén decided to take advantage of the crisis. He has submitted a bill to Parliament that would require all Hungarian legislation to replace the term 'gender' with 'sex at birth' - this would have to be reflected in documents such as identity cards, driving licences and passports.
Although approval of the law is currently in the hands of parliament, there is no doubt that Orbán will support the innovation if lawmakers pass it. As a result, it will mean that trans people will not be able to legally change their gender - or trans people would have to live their entire lives with documents that do not match their real identity and appearance. But this is clearly not a concern for Hungarian legislators, who are quite clear about gender identification. In fact, the bill literally states that "it is impossible to completely change a person's biological sex, so it must be stipulated that this change is not possible even in the civil register." The bill also directly states that "biological sex is based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes."
Although Orbán has not yet publicly commented on his stance on this new law, his previous anti-LGBT positions are widely known. For example, he has refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention defining gender as a social construct, blocked efforts to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, and often associated his activities with anti-LGBT groups. Then last November, he rejected Hungary's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, which he described as a "homosexual association"...
Critics then logically fear that the Orbán government has decided to push its social conservative agenda in this way, at a time when all attention is otherwise focused on the coronavirus epidemic. "This is an outrageous and deliberating attack on the trans community," said Marc Angel, a member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the informal group on LGBTI rights. And the fact is that trans people would undeniably face further discrimination as a result (in addition to psychological pressure), on many levels (work, access to services, housing, etc.).
The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has called on the Hungarian Parliament not to adopt the law, saying that the measure is contrary to human rights standards and also to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. "Transgender people have the right to legal recognition of their gender based on self-determination. This is a crucial step to ensure that their human rights are respected in all areas of life. Legal recognition is a matter of human dignity," she concluded. Unfortunately, however, the Hungarian government's (non-)compliance with European recommendations and appeals is common knowledge...
