Hungary’s highest court has ruled that it was illegal for the county of Pest to fine a bookstore chain for selling a queer-inclusive children’s book without a warning label—but that doesn’t mean the country is free of anti-LGBTQ censorship.
The book Micsoda család! (“What a Family”), by Lawrence Schimel, a Lambda Award-winning American author and translator living in Madrid, is an omnibus Hungarian edition of Schimel’s Early One Morning and Bedtime, Not Playtime, which show scenes from the daily lives of a boy with two moms and a girl with two dads, respectively.
In July, 2021, the county of Pest fined the bookstore chain Lira Könyv 250,000 Hungarian forints (about $749) for failing to indicate that the book contained “content which deviates from the norm.” The county claimed the chain was in violation of a law banning unfair trade practices. Lira responded by posting signs in all its stores saying that they sell such content—and continuing to sell it. They also went to court to protest the fine.
Now, the Curia of Hungary, the nation’s highest court, has upheld a lower court and ruled that the fine was illegal, reports RTL.
The Hungarian Rainbow Family Association (or Foundation for Rainbow Families; Szivárványcsaládokért Alapítvány) wrote on its Facebook page in response to the ruling [Google translation], “We are very, very happy with the final verdict,” adding:
Prior to the publication of our storybook, Hungarian Rainbow Families could not find a storybook in stores that was specifically about them—and for them. Yet we think every little kid deserves to be known in a tale about themselves and their parents. We did not understand why the Pest County Government Office wanted to impose a record amount of fine for this….
We believe that rainbow families are part of Hungary. Their existence is not propaganda. If we publish a storybook about them, and primarily for their children, neither will they. The volume is all about what is important to all of us: the family. It presents simple, everyday happenings from the perspective of young children.
It also noted, “Everyone is free to decide whether or not to purchase it.”
A law went into effect last year after the bookstore was fined, however, which bans sharing content with minors that depicts or promotes pornography, “content that depicts sexuality for its own purposes,” or “deviation from gender identity, gender reassignment, and homosexuality,” as RTL explains [Google translation]. RTL points out, however, “it has not been clear for several months exactly what the promotion means.” The law also forbids books with such content from being displayed in windows or sold within 200 meters of a school or church, and requires them to be in closed packaging so the covers are not visible. This is “Don’t say gay” (or lesbian, bi, or trans) legislation very similar to that moving forward in Florida and other U.S. states, which has the same problem of being vague and potentially limiting even children’s discussions of their own families.
The effect of this new law remains to be seen. Krisztián Nyáry, creative director of Líra Könyv, told RTL, “To the best of our knowledge, no proceedings have been initiated against any booksellers under the new law.” He also said that “the professional consensus is that the parts of the law that apply to booksellers cannot be complied with because no one has defined what it means to ‘display homosexuality’ or ‘depict selfish sexuality.’”
Whether the law will in future be used to punish booksellers or publishers of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books is an open question. Certainly it is harmful to the rainbow families of Hungary just to know the law is in place. For the moment, though, they have at least one court victory to celebrate.
Early One Morning and Bedtime, Not Playtime!, which have now been published in 34 editions and 27 languages, are also helping fight anti-LGBTQ bias elsewhere around the world—see my interview with Schimel from last fall.
