Interalia

Press release by Háttér Support Society for LGBT People (Hungary):

Budapest, December 14, 2011 – After adopting a constitution that defines marriage as a union between a woman and a man, the Hungarian Parliament is currently debating a bill on family protection that would only consider households based on marriage or filiation as family. Hungarian LGBT NGOs and opposition parties strongly criticize the discriminatory approach of the bill that not only excludes same-sex registered partners, but also those heterosexual couples who do not wish to get married.

The bill submitted by three Christian Democratic MPs wishes to strengthen the institution of family “an institution that predates law and the state” and which “is based on moral grounds”. The preamble states that “being raised in families is more secure than any other forms of upbringing” and that “families fulfill their role if the stable and firm relationship of a mother and a father is consummated by taking responsibility for a child”. The bill would define family as a “relationship between natural persons in an economic and emotional community that is based on a marriage between a woman and a man, or lineal descent, or family-based guardianship.” According to the new Constitution the bill would become a cardinal law, that is, repealing it in the future would require two thirds of the votes in Parliament, which makes it as difficult to change as the Constitution itself.

The Hungarian LGBT Alliance – an umbrella organization bringing together LGBT groups – called for the rejection of the bill in its written opinion. They claim the bill has not been properly discussed: the Government circumvented the compulsory consultation with civil society by submitting the bill through individual MPs, rather than through the regular procedure. This highly objectionable method has been widely used by the current conservative government with controversial bills such as the heavily criticized new media law or the law on the electoral system.

At the center of the criticism of the Alliance is the notion of “family” which they claim is too restrictive, excludes a large number of really existing families, does not comply with the notion of family as prescribed by the European Court of Human Rights and the Hungarian Constitutional Court, and would create legal uncertainty as many other pieces of legislation include a broader definition of family or family member. The bill also runs in clear opposition to previous claims by the conservative government that they would not alter the registered partnership legislation adopted by the previous Parliament with a social-liberal majority.

The NGO critique was widely shared by the socialist and green opposition parties who rejected the outdated, exclusionary approach of the law which would “create a hierarchy between various forms of family”. Several amendments to the law were submitted that would broaden the definition of family, recognize the diversity of family forms, and prohibit discrimination among various types of families and between families based on biological or social ties. None of these amendments were supported by the relevant committees, and further amendments coming from the Christian Democrats that would prescribe that the same notion of family should be used in the whole Hungarian legal system and which would limit inheritance rights to children and parents and to spouses (excluding registered partners) was supported by the governing parties and the representative of the Government as well.

Amendments will be voted on by the plenary session of the Parliament on December 19, the final vote is scheduled for December 23. The new law would enter into force on January 1, 2012, just a few days after its adoption.

Tamás Dombos
Háttér Support Society for LGBT People

For further inquiries: E-mail to Tamas Dombos

Egy michigani kisváros, Troy polgármestere valamilyen homofób kommentárokat írogatott a Facebookon, ezért egy leszbikus szülőpár szót kért a városi tanács ülésén, és egyikük elmondta, mit gondolnak ők a szeretetről, a felelősségről, amivel egy politikus minden általa képviselt polgárnak tartozik, meg hogy gondolkodjon már egy kicsit. Azt hiszem, ezt a megjelenés és a beszéd hatására nem nagyon kerülhette el. (Forrás: Mombian.)

Megszületett az ausztrál pénzügyminiszter, Penny Wong és partnere első gyermeke. Videó és cikk. Szóval a pénzügyminiszter Ausztráliában nő, leszbikus, gyereke születik, és valószínűleg még a pénzügyekhez is konyít. Mondom, science fiction.

"A TNT, a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Angol-Amerikai Intézetének Társadalmi Nemek Tudománya Kutatócsoportja 2010 őszén elhatározta, hogy rendszeresen megjelenő szakmai fórumot hoz létre a magyarországi, illetve az államhatáron túl bárhol élő magyar nők és feministák életét, mozgalmait, illetve az életüket megjelenítő kulturális, irodalmi, és média reprezentációkat kutatóknak."

Az első szám itt olvasható: TNTeF 2011/1.,

a frissen megjelent 2. szám pedig itt: TNTeF 2011/2.

Homofóbia, gyermeknevelés, iskolai erőszak, oktatás: a kötetről és a szerzőkről: FrissMeleg

Könyvbemutató: 2011. december 12., délután 5 óra, MTA Szociológiai Kutatóintézet (Budapest 1014, Úri utca 49.), első emeleti könyvtárszoba.

Svájcban az azonos nemű élettársak örökbe fogadhatják partnerük gyermekét -- mert náluk így döntött a parlament, "Azonos esélyeket minden családnak" címszó alatt. Nálunk meg egészen másféle (sarkalatos) törvénytervezet kerül valószínűleg a parlament elé.

(English text bellow.)

Homo Baby Boom
Videofilm spanyol (katalán) azonos nemű szülőkről, angol / spanyol / francia felirattal:
http://www.vimeo.com/22701135

És egy amerikai dokumentumfilm: Queer Spawn: tizenévesek LMBT szüleikkel az Egyesült Államokban:
http://www.annaboluda.com/queerspawn.html (Rendezte: Anna Boluda.)

*****

Award-winning documentary HOMO BABY BOOM is now online:
It shows the story of several families with lesbian moms or gay dads in Catalonia, Spain.

See video with English subtitles here: http://www.vimeo.com/22701135
(Also available with Spanish or French subtitles.)

And another documentary: Queer Spawn, focused on teenagers with LGBT parents in the US. (Directed by Anna Boluda.)
http://www.annaboluda.com/queerspawn.html

Press release by Hatter Society for LGBT People:

Budapest, August 8, 2011 – The Organized Crime Unit of the Budapest Police has started investigation on charges of incitement to hatred and violence against a member of a community against homophobic protesters who were planning on disrupting the Gay Pride March and who assaulted gay pride marchers leaving the premises. According to current legislation group violence against members of the LGBT community can be sanctioned by as much as eight year imprisonment.

Following incidents in previous years, this year’s Budapest Pride March held on June 18 did not end without atrocities either. Anti-gay protesters were gathering along the route of the march under the leadership of László Toroczkai, well-known head of an extreme right-wing movement in Hungary. The police managed to stop violent attacks against the march by fencing off anti-gay protesters shouting homophobic and anti-Semitic slogans and rerouting the march. After lifting the fences, however, the steamed-up mob marched to the end of the Gay Pride March route, where they insulted and assaulted participants leaving the march.

Rainbow Mission Foundation, the organizer of the March and the legal aid service of Háttér Support Society for LGBT People have reported four incidents that potentially qualify as incitement to hatred or violence against a member of a community. At Octagon Square three anti-gay protesters held up posters calling for the extermination of gays with reference to the Holocaust. According to a video prepared by news portal index.hu one of the anti-gay protesters proudly claimed he came to beat up gays. According to the same news portal a group of anti-gay protesters were following words of command to hunt down LGBT people and their friends leaving the march. A video of a larger group of extremists beating up a man carrying a pro-gay sign was posted on the website of extreme-right wing Szent Korona Radio.

The crime of violence against a member of a community was introduced in Hungary in February 2009 by extending the existing hate crimes legislation. According to the new law acts of threats and violence are sanctioned more severely if the attack is motivated by the real or perceived belonging of the victim to a social group, such as racial, ethnic or religious minorities or the LGBT community. The new law also penalizes preparation for hate crimes, that is calling for such an act or agreeing to commit such an act is already punishable without the actual attack being committed.

As opposed to the existing legislation only a tiny proportion of such attacks are investigated as hate crimes: authorities tend to disregard the hate motivation and victims are reluctant to report them because they fear prejudices on behalf of the police. In order to encourage the reporting of homophobic and transphobic incidents, Háttér Support Society for LGBT People started an online reporting interface available at www.jelentsd-a-homofobiat.hu.

Háttér Society for LGBT People
http://www.hatter.hu

For further inquiries, contact Hatter

In the end of 2010, we published a volume of interviews ("We are her family, security, her home:" Lesbian mothers and gay fathers) containing nine interviews with Hungarian lesbian parents and two with gay fathers.

Our other publication, a booklet entitled "Fehér füzet" (White book on same-sex parents and their children) analyzes the legal and social situation of families constituted by same-sex parents and their children in Hungary.

Their preparation, publication and distribution (to MEPs, ministries, journalists and the LGBT community) was funded by the Global Fund for Women.

A shorter version of the study can be read in English here.

Az ILGA-Europe rövid beszámolója szerint a szlovén bíróság döntésének eredményeként egy nő örökbe fogadhatja partnere gyermekét. Biztosan lesz még hosszabb beszámoló is!

Vasárnaptól házasodhatnak az azonos nemű párok New Yorkban. A hírfórumokon ma sok-sok videó és kép jelent meg az első napról, amikor 800-nál is több pár házasodott össze. Az első egy nőpár volt (tagjai 76 illetve 84 évesek).

Képek a Feministing blogban,

a CNN beszámolója

és egy videofelvétel a döntésről, politikus képviselők érveivel. Science fiction.