The Hungarian government, which has made hostility to LGBT people a central part of its judicial agenda, on Tuesday ordered a publisher to print indemnity containing books containing “behavior contrary to traditional gender roles”.
The government has said action is needed to protect consumers after Labrisz, an association for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, launched a fairy tale collection entitled Wonderland for All, which features some LGBT-themed stories.
The book, whose authors say it is meant to teach children to have respect for people of all backgrounds, contains a story of a doe who has a desire to become a goat, and a poem about a prince who marries another prince. Other stories portray minorities in a positive light, including Roma and the disabled. The character Snow White, renamed Leaf Brown, has dark skin.
“The book is being sold as a fairy tale, mentioned on the cover and designed accordingly, but it hides the fact that it depicts behavior that is not in line with traditional gender roles,” the government office in Budapest said in a statement.
The assignment requires Labrisz to place indemnities on all of his books with such content, including Wonderland Is for Everyone.
The book was first put in the spotlight in September when a member of the far-right political party Our Homeland Movement shredded a copy at a press conference. Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose right-wing Fidesz party has increasingly adopted hostile rhetoric and policies against LGBT groups, called the book ‘homosexual propaganda’ last year.
Labrisz, along with Hatter, an alliance for gay rights, said he would sue the government over the indemnity requirement, which he calls discriminatory and unconstitutional.
In May, Hungary voted to end the legal recognition of transgender people. In November, the government amended the constitution to declare that the father is a man and the mother a woman, which means that gay and trans couples can no longer adopt children.
Orban’s homophobic policies suffered a setback in November when Fidesz member József Szájer, a senior member of parliament, was caught fleeing a gay orgy in Brussels, in violation of pandemic restrictions and in possession of drugs. Szájer resigned from Fidesz in December.