Referendum on Child Protection: NGOs Call for Invalid Votes

Ten non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International and Budapest Pride, are calling for invalid votes in the upcoming April 3 referendum on child protection “so that we can all live in safety and equality in Hungary.”

This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.

The organizations, among which are mainly LGBTIQ organizations in addition to Amnesty International and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, wrote in their statement:

The popular vote is particularly mean-spirited for two reasons. On the one hand, the wording of the questions creates the idea that young people will be hurt by learning about sexual minorities; on the other hand, it violates the dignity of LGBTIQ people.”

In the referendum, they propose to vote “no” and “yes” simultaneously for each question. This is to ensure that the referendum does not reach the necessary number of participants and thus becomes invalid.

Let’s prove it again that Hungarians want to live in a tolerant society, let’s reject the exclusionary and hateful policy of the government!”,

said Dávid Vig, director of Amnesty International Hungary.

The referendum on child protection was initiated by the Orbán-led government and includes the following questions:

• Are you in favor of children in public schools being taught about sexual orientations without parental consent?
• Are you in favor of children being given information about gender reassignment treatments?
• Are you in favor of media content of a sexual nature that impacts children’s development being presented to them without restrictions?
• Are you in favor of media content depicting gender reassignment being shown to children?

Source: Index

In the featured photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán votes on the last referendum in 2016. Photo by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI