Yesterday the Hungarian Parliament has passed two measures which protect the rights of its LGBT citizens – one involving degrading or intimidating behaviour, and another specifically involving 'hate speech'. Hungary's hate crime legislation has been extended to cover hate motivated-crimes, such as violent acts, committed against a member of a 'social group', which is believed to include groups based on sexual orientation. The new legislation makes it possible to initiate civil proceedings against a person who engages in degrading or intimidating behavior towards groups based on nationality, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Another new law regarding 'hate speech' designed to 'incite hatred of a group of people' explicitly mentions that groups based on nationality, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation are protected by the legislation. The measures show the Hungarian Government is toughening up on homophobia, after violent attacks on LGBT Pride Marches in recent years. PinkNews has more on this story, on the link below.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 11th November 2008 - 4:15pm