“Orbán’s tried to shut us down, but we’ll fight for our existence”
BY LORENA CRISTEA, IMAGE BY ANITA SZIRBEK
The Hungarian LGBTQIA community took to the Budapest streets last weekend (14 April) to fight against a discriminatory bill that banned Pride marches from taking place. With thousands of allies feeling left uncertain and stripped of their rights, lesbian association Labrisz’s executive director, Dorottya Rédai, has been committed to making a change for years.
Dorottya grew up in an environment with a brother who received privileges because of his gender, which awakened her civic spirit for women and lesbians. After spending some time in a couple of feminist organisations that left her with a rather bitter taste, as lesbians were often made to be invisible, she eventually found her place in Labrisz by the time she came out and had her first partner. Years later, after she earned her master’s and PhD in gender studies, she became an educational scholar, as she always thought these two fields intersect. Two years ago, she departed from her academic ventures, as part-time activism was no longer a sustainable option, she then explained.
The organisation has supported the LGBTQIA community through extensive school curriculum activities to tackle the misinformation spread by the far-right ruling party Fidesz. A lot of their activities have had to change because of the anti-LGBTQIA politics, leaving them with few resources to better represent their community. “When we published A Fairyland Is For Everyone in 2020, we sparked a national outrage, with many hate campaigns flowing overnight,” she then added.
In 2021, Hungary implemented the so-called “child protection law”, which restricted minors from accessing legal text, including books, films and cultural products that “promote or portray the deviation of identity with respect to the sex at birth, gender reassignment or homosexuality”. The legislation also limited the sex education spectrum in schools, and only government-approved instructors are now allowed to teach the subject.
“We were forced to shut down the school programme as we stopped receiving invitations from state schools to come and speak to pupils about the topic. We reshaped the concept in 2023; it doesn’t focus on young people directly anymore but on professionals working with them instead,” Dorottya said.
The conservative attitudes surrounding the existence of LGBTQIA people are mostly fuelled by the government’s narrative, with Dorottya expressing her outrage at the fact that her community is constantly being subjected to false allegations, such as “influencing” children’s sexuality. “I decided I would put all my energy into activism because it’s more important and impactful. I had to change my personal life as well.”
Dorottya and her team are limited from doing advocacy or political lobbying, but they are still collaborating with friendly, local governments across many places. In 2022, they successfully challenged the homophobic referendum organised by PM Viktor Orbán by tirelessly working with 16 other organisations in a big media campaign for months to convince people they should vote invalidly.
Speaking of the widespread coverage by the international media, Dorottya understands that it is difficult for other journalists to get the “absurdity” of the political measures made by the state.
“With the 2022 referendum, they failed to comprehend its reason, especially the transphobic questions. Fidesz organised the referendum on the same day as the national elections because they wanted people to go vote. Otherwise, no one would have attended it.”
“There’s immense corruption totally ruining the country, and the media’s become too polarised, presenting a distorted narrative. Everyone that’s progressive and critical towards the government is bad,” Dorottya says.
“Now, more than seven hundred trans people are left without hormones, and those who were waiting for surgery will most likely suffer catastrophic outcomes,” Dorottya says.
“The EU doesn’t really have our backs in this sense; they’re spoon-feeding Orbán’s rhetoric that Brussels is attacking our national sovereignty. They’re quite counterproductive,” she added.
In Dorottya’s words, the current government must be overthrown while they’re still ruling so that systematic change can gradually happen, as democracy is the pinnacle of change.
“We must show strength and persistence. We’ve been an organisation much longer than this government has been ruling. We will remain, even if Viktor Orbán is threatening our existence, but I doubt it’s that easy to eliminate such organisations as he would wish.”
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