A chain bookstore Hungary Was fined for selling children’s stories, which depict a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, and officials condemned the picture book for featuring such families.
The picture book Micsoda család! is a Hungarian translation of two books co-written by American writer Lawrence Schimel and illustrator Elīna Brasliņa: “A Day in the Morning”, which depicts the morning of a little boy and his two mothers, and “Before going to bed, Not play time! “, one of the little girls with two fathers does not want to sleep.
Reuters report The local authority of Pest County in the surrounding area of Budapest imposed a fine of 250,000 HUF (£600) on the bookstore chain Líra Könyv.
Pest County Commissioner Richard Tarnai told the television station Hír TV that Líra Könyv had failed to clearly indicate that the book contained “departing content” and therefore violated the regulations on unfair business practices.
“This book is the same as other fairy tale books, so it violates the rules,” Tanay said. “There is no way to know that this book is about a family different from a normal family.”
Schimel wrote on Twitter that the Hungarian government “is trying to normalize hatred and prejudice through a concerted attack on books like me… These books represent the diverse and diverse world in which children live.”
He told the Guardian that the idea of these books is to “celebrate queer families and bring more queer joy to the world, so that the only books available to children are not about conflict.”
“In these stories, the fact that the parents are two moms or two dads has nothing to do with the story, just like the daily life of children in rainbow families. These families not only experienced homophobia, but also had fun, “He says.
Lyrics says It will now post a sign to warn customers that it sells “books with different content from traditional books.”
“The Rainbow Family is a completely normal ordinary family,” the Hungarian distributor of the book Rainbow Family Foundation, Said in a statement“So far, these families have not had their own storybooks. This is why we think it is important to publish a fairy tale book about them-first for them.”
Despite the incident in Hungary, Simmel said he was “more determined to continue trying to create books like this-books that respect children’s intelligence and provide them with a broad and complex world in a fun and easy-to-understand way”.
Schimel’s book will be published in Welsh and English in the UK this fall.
The fine was imposed under a Hungarian law prohibiting unfair trade practices, but in the broader crackdown LGBT rights In Hungary, it is led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
A widely criticized new law in which Prohibit LGBT people from appearing in educational materials or TV programs for children under 18, Effective Thursday. The government claimed that the law was designed to protect children.
On the same day, the European Parliament Expected to condemn the law And urged the European Commission to expedite legal cases against Hungary that discriminate against LGBT people.
The law has been condemned as “unacceptable” by the Hungarian Publishers and Booksellers Association, saying it “creates conditions for restricting freedom of art and speech.” It warned that the “masterpieces of world and Hungarian literature” currently used in secondary school curricula include Sappho, Ovid, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Mihai Babitz and Sandor Verez, may be affected by the ban.
Earlier this year, the Hungarian government ordered The disclaimer of “behavior inconsistent with traditional gender roles” was printed in the fairy tale anthology, which contains some LGBT-themed stories.
