European Commission v Hungary

[Lurkosaurus]

Dear all - this is my first post, so first things first - thank you, all you wonderful women who contribute to this board - and the world more broadly.

Case C-769/22 was published in the Official Journal yesterday. The Commission is bringing Hungary to the EU court for its “anti-LGBT/anti-paedophilia” law. The law does a number of things, including prohibiting advertising directed at children to promote gender identities “that do not correspond to the sex assigned at birth” or “sex reassignment”. Unfortunately, homosexuality is also one of the categories.

The issues around Hungary obviously go beyond this particular one (rule of law, illiberal democracy, etc), and so I am concerned that there will be a conflation of issues - ie perhaps Hungary has a point in parts of that law, but because it’s Hungary (the bad guy), the nuances won’t be drawn out. As one example only, the discussion of homosexuality vs transsexuality needs to not be lumped together.

Among the Member States, Belgium has said it will intervene in the proceedings to support the Commission, and I think there will be many more Member States who will do so.

I am concerned about conflation in the reasoning in a judgment that may be highly authoritative/precedential, with a knock-on effect on women’s rights.

I’m only just starting to articulate this and wondering if somebody else has looked at this at all? Any thoughts?

Welcome. This is the problem with the forced teaming of transgenderism with LGB. It's a distinction that's hard to easily explain and I'd share your concern that it can end up fostering homophobia.

I agree with you, Lurkosaurus. The conflation of preventing paedophilia and preventing the promotion of gender identities to children really need to be separated from homosexuality/homophobia, gay marriage etc. I am afraid the conflation with homophobia will lead to promotion of gender identity to children as being a 'good thing' and that the anti-paedophilia aspect will be shoved under the carpet or will segue into MAP tropes. Very dangerous for the safety of children and the dignity and privacy of women. Hungary may (does) have a point on gender ID and children, and preventing paedophila but since Hungary is 'bad' no-one is going to take any notice of what is actually being said. Bloody EU, I am afraid, virtue signalling its progressive credentials in a knee jerk reaction.

I wonder if they aren't looking at the US and the way that sexuality is being taught to children there, which is getting push-back even from politically moderate parents.

If so, I think it would be difficult to convince people it is forced teaming, rather than a really inappropriate focus on sexuality categories in children who are not at an age where it's developmentally appropriate. And in a conservative country I suspect that many parents are going to feel it ought to be something addressed at home rather than school anyway.

While it is frustrating to see gender, which is really different than sexuality, conflated, to some extent I would say that there is a third issue which is what is the role of public education in terms of teaching sexual ethics of any kind, be it sexuality, gender, abortion, sex outside of marriage, or whatever. The claim by genderists that schools have a role in teaching children what to think about such things isn't totally separate from the claim that they have a role teaching sexual topics of other kinds.