Hungary is Begging to Get Kicked Out of the EU

#TC101

Welcome to Third Cultured – a foreign policy and LGBTQIA+ politics newsletter – published by yours truly, Kyle Borland. My goal is to highlight the unique role Queer people play in the politics of the United States and the world-at-large.

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This edition:

• Opinion Essay

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Opinion Essay

Hungary is continuing its slide out of sync with the rest of Europe.

And – correctly – Brussels and Berlin were not pleased.

Didier Reynders @dreynders

I deeply regret the new law in Hungary that bans the portrayal of homosexuality to minors. When building their own identities, younger generations need to have access to information that reflects a modern and truly open society, in all its diversity. No one should be censored.🏳️‍🌈

Michael Roth MdB 🇪🇺 @MiRo_SPD

Today's decision in #Hungary's parliament represents another severe state discrimination against #LGBTIQ people. This law goes against everything we regard as our common European values. Full solidarity and support for LGBTIQ people in Hungary.

This week, the Hungarian National Assembly passed legislation (157-1) that prohibits sharing LGBTQ+ content, or content featuring Queer people, with minors. Using the tried and true – “But, think of the children!” – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Christian conservative party, tied the anti-LGBTQ+ measures to a bill introduced to punish pedophilia making it next-to-impossible for most legislators to vote against it.

Lydia Gall @LydsG

#Hungary parliament just passed the anti-LGBT law to the sounds of clapping. Associating pedophilia with LGBT people, banning comprehensive sexuality education & stifling free speech is despicable & unworthy of an EU member state. #LGBT

Thousands showed up to protest the bill in Budapest the day before the vote, but Orban and his Fidesz party were determined to leverage the discriminatory law to boost their popularity before elections next year.

I am terrified for Hungarian Queers, particularly the LGBTQ+ youth that will best most affected by this law. Queerness will again be legally censored and violently ridiculed, all with the full-throated support of the national government.

Katy Montgomerie 🦗 @KatyMontgomerie

The UK did this in 1989 with Section 28 and it was objectively a disaster. It caused a whole generation of LGBT people to suffer and we're still dealing the aftermath today This is evil

NPR @NPR

Hungary has passed legislation that bars sharing LGBTQ content with people under the age of 18. It comes after the ruling conservative party passed another law making it impossible for trans people to change the gender markers on their documents. https://t.co/AyKLSWtd0u

A small silver lining is that, as in most countries, urban political leaders are more tolerant than the nationalists running the country.

"On this shameful day, the opposition's place is not in the parliament but on the streets.”

– Budapest Mayor Karacsony on Facebook

It’s anti-Queer efforts like these that fill me with dread for the next several decades.

Was the last decade “the good times”? That’s awfully sad to think about.

Either way – between Hungary passing this law, Ghana arresting 21 LGBTQ+ activists for attending an advocacy training conference, Japan can’t even pass a bill labelling discrimination against LGBT individuals “unacceptable,” and more than 250 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in US state legislatures in 2021 (with 20+ signed into law) – I feel the pendulum pulling us backward.

And, I don’t trust the public to stand by Queers in the long-run.

(Source: GZERO)

Stay safe and get vaccinated, beautiful people. Thanks for reading.

Roll Pride,

Kyle (@kgborland)

PS – Here are some timely Queer reads worth your time.

• 5 small cities that are surprisingly LGBTQ-friendly (MarketWatch)

• 25 rainbow flag-waving corporations donated more than $10 million to anti-gay politicians in the last two years. (Popular Info)

  Rep. Pramila Jayapal @RepJayapal

  LOVE this rainbow banner that 🌈Wells Fargo🌈 is sporting for Pride month! Don’t love that they gave $69,000 to Mitch McConnell and other GOP Senators who are blocking the Equality Act.

  

• 42 of the best books by LGBTQ+ authors(Cosmopolitan)

• A Love Letter To My Young Queer Self (Scary Mommy)

• After Security Assaulted a Black Woman, a D.C. Gay Bar Is Reckoning With Allegations of Racism (them.)

• American culture hates femininity (Sex and The State)

• Blood donation: Gay couple 'thrilled' after rules change (BBC)

• Bryan Washington on the Narratives We Fear (New Yorker)

• Celebrating Pride Month (Washington Post)

• Congress Has Made Juneteenth A National Holiday. Just Don’t Talk About The Legacy Of Slavery. (BuzzFeed News)

  Astead @AsteadWesley

  its kinda amazing: juneteenth is gonna be a federal holiday for reasons teachers won't be allowed to explain to their students out of fear critical race theory backlash

• Discovering the “Gay Lifestyle” through 1970s Magazines (JSTOR)

• ‘Gang’s All Queer’ Comedy From Jaboukie Young-White & Issa Rae In Works At HBO (Deadline)

• How ACT UP Changed America (New Yorker)

• How Orlando's LGBTQ Latino community is healing and mobilizing five years after the Pulse massacre (CNN)

• How To Start Your Kink Life (Love, Beastly)

• Income Pilot Program for Transgender People in San Francisco (Let’s Go There)

• Indian high court calls for sweeping reforms to respect LGBTQ+ (NBC News)

• Is TikTok Censoring Pro-Abortion Content? (Refinery29)

• Is weed gay?: Cannabis and queer health (Leafly)

• Justice Department says it can defend religious schools’ exemption from anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws (Washington Post)

  Comment: I hate it here.

• LGBTQ+ Cartoon Characters are Vital for Today’s Queer Youth (Nerdist)

• LGBT+ writers eviscerate Hollywood for ‘problematic’ queer stories: ‘Do the work to educate yourself’ (Pink News)

• LGBTQ bills advance in California Legislature (Bay Area Reporter)

  Comment: It is truly a blessing to be Queer and live in California.

• Marie Newman and Her Daughter Evie on LGBTQ+ Rights, the Equality Act, and Family (Teen Vogue)

• “My Life is Quite Gay.” A Queer Memoir Reading List (LitHub)

• Prison Abolition is a Queer Liberation Issue (Emory Wheel)

• Queer City: How to Design More Inclusive Public Space (Streetsblog)

• Queer Cobbler: A recipe for being gay in the South (Reckon)

• Queer Representation in pop culture (MSNBC)

• Revel in the First Pride Flag, Long-assumed Lost, in San Francisco (Hyperallergic)

• Taxes And The LGBTQ Community (Forbes)

• The debate over 'kink at Pride' divides the internet, but the kink community has been part of queer protest and celebration since Stonewall (Insider)

  Comment: Kink will always be at Pride. Prude’s and straight’s opinions are irrelevant.

• The Devil Wears Prada oral history: Cast reunites to dish on making the best-dressed hit (EW)

• The Earliest Queer Movies in Film History (Nerdist)

• The East Village Other (JSTOR)

• The Healing Power of Queer Coming-of-Age Stories (NYTimes)

• The Men in Apartment 4C (Maisonneuve)

• The podcast telling Singapore's hidden gay stories (BBC)

• The 'queer aesthetic' is deeper than rainbow merch (Mashable)

• The Queer Surrealism You’ve Been Waiting For (The Cut)

• Two-spirit pride stories (Indian Country Today)

• We Tried Chipotle’s Drag Queen Menu Just to Taste the Corporate Pride (Vulture)

Brittany for Congress @Britt4Congress

Today we honor José Sarria, drag queen, child of Columbian immigrants & WWII veteran. José Sarria was a trailblazer for the gay community & first openly gay person to run for office in the US.

Ritchie Torres @RitchieTorres

As the first openly LGBTQ Latino Member of Congress, I joined @SpeakerPelosi, @LGBTEqCaucus, & the Florida Delegation at a ceremony for the National Pulse Memorial. The mass murder of LGBTQ Latinos at Pulse is a searing reminder of the violence that hate and fear can unleash.

Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis @RevJacquiLewis

Liberation is never zero-sum: Our freedom is inextricably bound together. When we break shackles binding another person, they can’t cage us, either. To my queer family: I love you fiercely. And I’ll never stop fighting for the same love you so radically embody—it is God’s hope.

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