Hungary is run by an authoritarian leader (Viktor Orban) who has strongly aligned itself with Christian nationalism and is opposed to immigration, gay rights, and what it calls “Western literalism”.
What makes you say that it is family-friendly with a blooming economy?
Orbán just banned Pride events nationwide, and vowed to use facial recognition software to fine anyone attending. This all in an attempt to placate the minority of the populace who want these kind of draconian measures (polling points out that the majority of Hungarians do not support this ban), and to draw attention away from the inflation, economy, and terrible state of healthcare and education.
A utopia for white Christian traditionalist families who feel Putin is just a misunderstood leader trying to protect his people. Not quite as family friendly to any other family. Family-friendly to me means that a place is actually conductive to raising a family, regardless of what your children grow up to be. This includes children who discover that they are gay or trans (or even just atheist or non-Christian). And are families made up of two gay parents welcome too? Otherwise 'family-friendly' is just a fascist dog whistle.
Does that mean you actually approve of banning something like a Pride event?
'Gender ideology' as a term is awfully vague and not really a thing outside of extreme-right politics. For some this appears to even include homosexuality and expressions of a non-binary gender identity, in addition to acknowledging the concept of gender dysphoria and transgenderism. The way the right-wing Hungarian political parties are using that term to me has nothing to with a critical or conservative stance with regards to transgender healthcare, or healthy public debate. Rather it seems to serve as a deliberately constructed straw man.
The problem is that no matter what restrictive policies and laws are enacted, gay, non-binary, transgender, and other queer Hungarians exist.
I'm personally not in favor of pride but I don't feel THAT strongly about it to be in favor of banning it either. This is how I imagine most of the country feels. What I was getting at with my first comment is that if our opposition fully owns up to being pro-gender that would torpedo their chance of defeating FIDESZ (which I think is ultimately more important than anything else in country level politics).
>'Gender ideology' as a term is awfully vague and not really a thing outside of extreme-right politics. For some this appears to even include homosexuality and expressions of a non-binary gender identity, in addition to acknowledging the concept of gender dysphoria and transgenderism.
Yeah this is where we are getting into fundamental disagreements. I, and most people I know just flat out don't believe that you can transition into being a woman as a man or vice versa. It's just not a thing. Much like how I don't become a car overnight if I sleep in a garage and make motor sounds. To me the whole topic transgenderism seems like some kind of mass psychosis where people delude first themselves and then threaten others to follow along with their delusion. Sure, wearing a skirt and calling yourself Jane as a Joe doesn't hurt anyone of course, where I draw the line is when this inevitably turns into demanding that others be a part of this farce.
>The way the right-wing Hungarian political parties are using that term to me has nothing to with a critical or conservative stance with regards to transgender healthcare, or healthy public debate. Rather it seems to serve as a deliberately constructed straw man.
It kind of is a strawman. But in a "broken clock is right twice a day" way I have to give this one to FIDESZ. As long as they are preemptively preventing stories like these[0] occurring here, I can't fault them for this one. That being said, I hope TISZA won't give any concessions on this either.
> I, and most people I know just flat out don't believe that you can transition into being a woman as a man or vice versa.
I think I see where you're coming from. To be fair, I don't think many people actually believe in a magic fairy who turns men into women or vice versa.
But : In the playground, have you never looked at some kid at a distance, squinted, and gone 'I wonder if they're a girl or a boy, it's hard to tell'?
I know I've had that experience myself back in the '80s, before there was this much debate.
