In 2021 many anti-LGBTQ+ bills started being rapidly passed in Hungary. The prime minister of Hungary Viktor Orban has been in office since 2010 and has repeatedly attacked the LGBTQ community. The bills he let pass were banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change as schools, citing the need to protect children from “LGBTQ propaganda.” Since then so many of these bills have been passed and are detrimental to the LGBTQ+ community in Hungary. Orban is also said to be wanting to protect the Christian values of his country. In this interview I go over the many details of the bills and what has been implemented within the Hungarian community.

Lena Csaszi is a JMU student, the child of a Hungarian Immigrant, and a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I interviewed Lena about the many bills being passed and her thoughts and feelings on the bills. Me and Lena discussed the LGTBQ community in Hungary and how they came together to support each other.  Lena talked about visiting Hungary and what the political climate is like there. We both came to the conclusion that a lot of countries are also passing similar anti-LGBTQ+ bills and it seems to be a rising issue. We compared some of the book bans happening in the United States with the bans in Hungary. Lena also discussed her hope for the future of the LGBTQ community in Hungary.We disscus how the LGBTQ community has started to become closer and fight against these bills. I ask Lena about her relationship with her family in Hungary and how they feel about the bills since they have a relative who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

A fellow James Madison Duke Lena Csaszi is a part of the LGBTQ+ community and is of Hungarian heritage. Lena’s family on her father’s side are from Hungary. Lena’s father immigrated to the US in the 90s, where he and his wife raised their family in Northern Virginia . Lena’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and two of her cousins still live in Hungary. She frequently visits Hungary to see her family. She took a gap year in 2022-2023 and lived there for a year with her family. In the past couple of years Hungary has begun passing anti-LGBTQ+ laws. I will be interviewing Lena about the bills being passed and her thoughts and feelings on them. 

I decided to research articles talking about the different bills anti-LGBTQ bills being passed in Hungary. The articles I have researched talk about the restrictions, bans, limitations and regulations the LGBTQ community has been put under from these bills. I also picked an article out that doesn’t only talk about the bills being passed in Hungary but how many other countries are passing similar bills. I wanted to show that this isn’t only happening in one country it’s happening in several. Many countries think they are protecting their youth by initiating these bills. But they really are only harming a whole community of people. 

Hi, my name is Sydnie. And I’ll be conducting this interview today. Can you please state your name? 

 

Lena  0:07  

Yes, I’m Lana Csaszi. 

 

Sydnie Booze  0:09  

Alrighty, can you also state your pronouns? 

 

Lena  0:13  

She /Her. 

 

Sydnie Booze  0:15  

Um, so today I wanted to ask you a couple questions about your Hungarian heritage and also your LGBTQ side of yourself. So can we start off  talking about your dad’s side of the family and your Hungarian heritage? 

 

Lena  0:32  

Yeah, so my dad was born in Hungary. My whole dad’s family is Hungarian, and he emigrated here, before I was born. So in the 90s. And, and it was a pretty smooth transition for him, because he met my mom while he was here, before he got his citizenship, his US citizenship. And so he was, like, supported by my mom’s side of the family. So that provide a pretty, like, easy transition for him. And, and I would say, for the most part, it hasn’t been challenging for him, considering that he’s white, like, I feel as as a white immigrant, you have somewhat of a privilege. But I definitely think he has experienced some challenges. Mostly because he has an accent and English is not his first language. But overall, he’s had a pretty good experience so far, adjusting to like American culture, and whatnot, especially since there is like a pretty large Hungarian American community, in the US and different parts. For example, like in California, Ohio, New Jersey, there’s pretty big Hungarian American communities. And so yeah, so I feel pretty lucky because I get to visit my Hungarian family often, like, in the past, it was around  once a year, I’d be able to go over to Hungary, and visit them and I feel pretty lucky to be able to speak the language pretty fluently, and kind of keep that contact with them.

 

Sydnie Booze  2:19  

Can we also talk about, I know you’re a part of the LGBTQ community is there like a certain atmosphere there in Hungary towards that community that you have, seen or just, experienced yourself?

 

Lena  2:32  

So I think there’s a pretty big difference between the political side of it, and then  every, like people’s everyday attitudes and thoughts and behaviors. Because I would say the government is pretty conservative and pretty homophobic. They’ve, as you know, you’ve they’ve passed a lot of bills in the recent years, and like LGBT community, have never really gotten much acceptance from the government. So I would say that most of the people in Hungary are pretty accepting. And it’s kind of like, any place in the world really, it’s more like the capital or wherever there’s like, a bigger city, more educated people, people tend to be a lot more accepting. So when I lived in Budapest, the capital, there are a lot of opportunities for like queer people to get together. A lot of queer events, there’s like even a Budapest Pride event every year. So I would say like, the public is very accepting, I would say, an average person, like off the street, they’re not going to say anything, do anything. Like, it’s not dangerous, I would say in the capital. Then if you were to go out to like, the more like rural areas, where there’s like, less education or,  it’s more just farm. It’s definitely more conserved out there. But I wouldn’t say it’s unsafe, necessarily. I know there have been some hate crimes in the past. So unfortunately, it’s not always safe, but in the capital, it’s mostly pretty accepting spot, and there’s definitely spaces for queer people to get together and celebrate that part of themselves.

 

Sydnie Booze  2:32  

Yeah, and I think that, it’s kind of the same around here. Also, like bigger cities are more accepting. And when you go, you know, somewhere else, like deeper into the country or, you know, to a red state, it’s not as accepting. Can you talk about how you have intergrated like your family life and, how you have, integrated both sides of yourself, like Hungarian and LGBTQ. 

 

Lena  4:51  

Yeah, so I guess I never really like came out to them. It was more just like, I would have like maybe a Pride bracelet on or something and they just kind of knew and, so we never really talked about it explicitly. Which, you know, sometimes it’s a little disappointing, but at the same time, they’re accepting. So even if we don’t  talk about it, as long as they accept me, it’s fine. Yeah. And I would say , so unfortunately, you know, people are accepted, for the most part, they’re not going to say or do anything mean or out of the ordinary, but , sometimes Hungarians will have certain attitudes, if they’re on the more conservative side, because most people I would say, a pretty liberal if they’re in the US or the Capitol, but some Hungarians can be kind of conservative, and they won’t feel comfortable with,  people that are more visibly queer. But this is on a more rare occasion. So sometimes when I’m at,  for example, a Hungarian American event, where it’s Hungarians that are living in the US, kind of come together, and I don’t know, like, make food together or celebrate, or, you know, have a Christmas celebration, or something like that. There have been like, sometimes some parents where especially where it’s kind of like a Sunday school kind of thing, where there’s children there who are getting an education or like, there’s Hungarian  grammar schools  in the US. Sometimes parents will be a little bit weird about it. Like, if there’s a there’s another kid who’s visibly queer or whatever. They will kind of take it up with people in charge, which is, a more rare occasion. Although sometimes, though, when I’m in charge of  teaching some kids, Hungarian or I’m in a more of a Hungarian event. And I’m teaching kids, I won’t ever bring,  my sexuality or  identity into it, just because I just would rather stay away from that, especially with Hungarian people, because you never know where they stand.  And you never know who they’re going to talk to. And I think, unfortunately, when  the more harmful rhetorics in Hungary, that the government is kind of pushing is that being queer gay equates to like being a pedophile? And so whenever I’m working with kids, I never want to bring that into it. Because  it can get very messy quickly. And so I just tend to separate those kinds of things. I don’t really bring my queer identity into Hungarian spaces intentionally. 

 

Sydnie Booze  7:47  

Yeah. Just like, you brought up there’s bills being passed in Hungary right now. For anti LGBTQ bills, and saying, they’re protecting the kids. What’s your feelings on those?

 

Lena  8:04  

Well, they’re definitely  homophobic bills. If you’re trying to protect kids from any sort of  queer content. You’re basically just trying to protect kids from seeing any sort of gay content. That’s homophobia. So I think some of the things that they’re counter arguments are is that they don’t want to bring any sort of sexually explicit content to kids, which is totally understandable. But you shield kids from that, it’s just gonna make like, you know, they’re just going to be ignorant, and they won’t know that it’s actually just, it’s not dangerous thing at all. It’s normal. And, you know,  if they’re shown, like normal movies, or like, right, regular movies that are aired in Hungary to kids under 18, which are, you know, just only straight,  that also, you could say sexually explicit, if there was straight couples kissing, that’s fine. And then if, it’s like a gay couple kissing that’s harmful. It’s the same thing is just, reinforcing the idea that straight is fine. So ultimately,  it is harmful because when you make this community a thing that’s  unknown. You make it out to be more dangerous than it really is.

 

Sydnie Booze  9:51  

Yeah, and some of the bills  they’re like shrink wrapping and Saran wrapping books that contain LGBTQ content. So even if a child is in a store and  picks it up, they can’t open it, they can’t see it. Also, there was one when it first kind of started, it was a photography exhibit. There was a picture and it was called homosexuality. And it was just two men  just  in the picture. And there was a sign “no minors allowed” like it was like crazy. The lengths they are going to, when there’s probably more issues they can talk about.

 

Lena  10:33  

yeah, there’s definitely bigger problems that you have to be handled. And I think this is not one of them. Yeah, I agree.

 

Sydnie Booze  10:43  

You lived there for a year. And you visit on and off? Have you seen any of the changes that have been happening? Has the community like become stronger? And has there been more support for the LGBT community, that you’ve seen,

 

Lena  11:01  

I don’t think I’ve like kind of live long enough to see a major change. But I can say that being kind of like a younger person, it’s really cool to see how many like, how they’re such a big group of youth that are that are definitely accepting and, embracing their LGBT identities in Hungary, because growing up in that kind of environment, where their own government is, against you. And despite that, celebrating that part of yourself, it’s so inspiring. And, and so yeah, it’s really cool. Because, I found that living in Budapest, there was a lot of queer events, and most of them were young people. And so I really have hope, I guess, that young people will be will be able to make themselves more visible. And then by doing that, kind of normalizing it, and Destigmatizing it, making it not a scary myth.

 

Sydnie Booze  12:07  

The people that are getting , the most backlash is the trans community. I feel  that’s a lot of places to, like, here. And, you know, the governments’ are just so terrified of it for no reason. Lastly some of the bills being passed here are similar to those being passed in Hungary. Have you seen any similarities and differences between the two countries like the political environment,  just like what you’ve seen when visiting and living here?

 

Lena  12:41  

Yeah, totally. And that’s so true. It’s just, it’s, very, very similar. I think, in both places, both in Hungary and in the US. The lack of education on LGBT issues is very abundant. And I think that just speaks for itself.  You are purposely not educating people on it, purposely keeping them in the dark. And I think that just says so much about the government and like people’s conservative attitudes. Because that’s ultimately how you control people is you just take away their education and don’t let them know, you can  let them live in ignorance and ignorance breeds hate. So I think just getting like  just the basic facts about what identities are, or just basic education can go so far. And I think keeping people in the dark about anything is really harmful. So in both areas, I think education is the solution. 

 

Sydnie Booze  13:55  

I mean, they both have taken action about books. It’s insane. Because like when I was reading and I was like, okay, so this is just happening other places, too. When people think of America, definitely, like people in foreign countries say, Oh, they’re so progressive, and stuff, like that. And it’s like, no, it’s just kind of happening everywhere.. Which I think is so crazy.

 

Lena  14:20  

It is kind of sad as well. Yeah. Because you think that censorship and all that everything is in the past it’s a very backward thinking

 

Sydnie Booze  14:27  

it really is. And it’s like, good to get your perspective, because you’ve been to Hungary and here so you can mash the two and see what’s different. Is there anything else you would like to add? 

 

Lena  14:47  

ultimately, like I said, Education is key. And then also, just simply having a conversation with people who are different than you can just do a world of wonders. Even if you don’t like it, you should lean into that discomfort and just get to know people that are different than you because that’s just the best way of educating yourself. You talk to someone you see that they’re not this big and scary thing, that they’re just people too, and that’s a good way to kind of get rid of any biases you have is just simply just asking questions, getting to know people. I think that’s what we can do in our everyday lives as everyday people, just getting to know people that you’re different from.

 

Sydnie Booze  15:39  

Well, thank you so much for doing this interview with me.

 

Lena  15:43  

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

 

Sydnie Booze  15:44  

Alrighty, thank you.

Interview with Lena Csaszi, History 150 Spring 2024, Conducted by Sydnie Booze, March 22, 2024.

I conducted this interview in person with Lena. I used the voice memo app on my phone to record the interview. We conducted the interview in my dorm room in a casual setting. The photo I used is a free source photo that was taken at the most recent pride parade in Budapest. I used Otter.ai to transcribe my audio, I had to do some grammar editing on it as well.

Reuters. “Thousands Join Budapest Pride Protest over State’s Anti-LGBT Moves.” Reuters, 15 July 2023, www.reuters.com/world/europe/thousands-join-budapest-pride-protest-states-anti-lgbt-moves-2023-07-15/.

Rutai, Lili. “From Censorship to Solidarity: The Surprising Consequences of Hungary’s LGBT Law.” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, RFE/RL, 31 Jan. 2024, www.rferl.org/a/hungary-lgbt-law-censorship-solidarity/32800032.html. 

ACLU. “Over 120 Bills Restricting LGBTQ Rights Introduced Nationwide in 2023 so Far.” American Civil Liberties Union, 28 June 2023, www.aclu.org/press-releases/over-120-bills-restricting-lgbtq-rights-introduced-nationwide-2023-so-far.