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A shocking story has emerged about a teaching assistant, allegedly one of the organizers of the teachers’ strikes in Hungary. Zsolt Bite, an LGBTQ activist who until recently worked at the Krúdy Gyula English-Hungarian Bilingual Primary School, openly admitted in a video recently posted on the internet that he is having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old, which he thinks is perfectly fine, reports PestiSrácok.
Zsolt Bite, an openly homosexual man, is nearly 40 years old, and says he is an ephebophile. The word refers to someone who is attracted to a younger age group. In the case of ephebophiles, we are talking about 15 to 19 years olds. The teacher says that it is not a problem that he is an ephebophile and has a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, because the age of consent in Hungary is 14.
In Hungary, it is not a criminal offense to have sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old teenager as an adult, but there are countries around the world where it is a criminal offense because the age of consent is higher.
Bite is reportedly a regular participant in teacher protests, and according to some sources, he is among the organizers of the demonstrations. He claimed in his controversial video that should he be attacked for his sexual relationship,
he will be defended, free of charge, by lobby groups and organizations such as the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), the Helsinki Committee, the Democratic Union of Teachers (PDSZ), and even Amnesty International.
PestiSrácok also found out that Bite and Erzsébet Nagy, a representative of the Democratic Union of Teachers and one of the leaders of the protests, probably know each other well. This is suggested by the fact that last October, Bite wrote on his Facebook page that he was reposting a picture of himself in front of the Krúdy school in a rainbow T-shirt, because he believes that no one should restrict the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression. In support, Nagy commented under the picture: “Very good, if there is a problem, tell us!”, which may suggest that the teachers’ organization was indeed ready to come to his defense.
Zsolt Bite in the rainbow T-shirt. Image: Facebook/Klára Cecília Czubora
Hungarian tabloid Blikk contacted Nagy about the case. She told the paper that she condemned what happened and defended herself by saying that although Bite claimed in his videos that she and PDSZ had helped him with his cases, in fact they had only given legal aid to him because he had come into conflict with the school’s administration because of his homosexuality, but was sent back to Krúdy under pressure from a union.
PDSZ does not appear to be taking the teaching assistant’s side in light of the recent news, as they issued a statement on Monday saying that they have never defended pedophiles or those accused of being pedophiles. They added that it was untrue to claim that the organizations mentioned by Mr. Bite were defending him in the case currently being brought against him.
The man has since deleted the video of him talking about his relationship with the 15-year-old boy. However, Hungarian portal PestiSrácok has saved the video, so it can still be viewed. In it, Bite talks about how he is protected in every way, and is especially paying attention not to get involved with boys under 14 or his students. He also says that he is not a pedophile and that anyone who says he is can sue him, but he claims that they do not have legal grounds.
He said that it was perfectly within his morality to have a relationship with a 15-year-old, and that anyone who could not accept that was unable to do anything legally.
Since then, Bite may have regretted sharing his sexual orientation and private secrets with the world because he was dismissed by the school district administration. He told Hungarian tabloid Blikk that he did not understand his dismissal, because he was only joking when he claimed that he was having an affair with a 15-year-old boy. He also said that students cannot have access to his videos, which are basically for adults. In these videos, he is sometimes seen undressing.
Ilona Zsuzsanna Tamás, the head of the North Budapest School District Center, commented to Blikk about Bite’s dismissal that they respect diversity, but the content of the videos showing a relationship with a 15-year-old boy of school age, means that he is not allowed to be around children.
The President of the National Faculty of Education has also spoken out on the matter. According to Péter Horváth, Bite cannot be held legally responsible for his actions and words, but his behavior is completely irresponsible in a moral sense. He added that a 15-year-old student obviously has very little or no experience in the field of love, their defense mechanisms have not yet developed, which means that such an asymmetrical relationship typically results in the child being harmed. “Abusing a situation where our capacity to influence is much greater is morally very worrying and reprehensible,” Horváth pointed out.
Moreover, Bite’s case has once again brought to the fore the need for a child protection law. Máté Kocsis, the leader of the Fidesz parliamentary group, wrote on his Facebook page that while the European Union is attacking Hungary for the anti-pedophile law package, a teacher in Hungary admits to preying on minors with a strange explanation. “As the father of two children and one of the authors of the law, I can say that as long as even one pedophile is looking for legal loopholes, or if they want to annul our law against the will of the three million, six hundred thousand Hungarians who have expressed their will in a referendum, we have our work cut out for us. We will fight to protect our children,” Kocsis stated.
Featured photo via Pixabay
