Before it’s possible to discuss any policy position that’s supposedly “progressive,” the first step is always to escape the world of euphemisms and start talking, in explicit detail, about what’s actually happening. This might sound straightforward, but every single organ of the Left is committed to making sure you don’t do this. They would much rather you debate the abstract concept of “a woman’s right to choose,” for example, than discuss how children are dismembered and discarded like trash. They would also prefer that you use terms like “gender-affirming care,” instead of discussing chemical castration. And on and on. Euphemisms are one of the most potent tools these people have. They are everywhere, in every single debate on every issue. And in every case, they’re a gross misrepresentation of reality. They need to be neutralized immediately before any actual discussion can begin.
To that end, take this headline from the other day. It ran in The Guardian:
Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ gatherings.
The Associated Press ran a similar story:
Hungary passes constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ public events, seen as a major blow to rights.
The article explains that Hungary’s parliament just overwhelmingly passed an amendment that will outlaw, “public events by LGBTQ+ communities.”
If you’re just skimming these headlines, this might seem like a surprising development. You might wonder: What exactly are “public events by LGBTQ+ communities,” exactly? And what precisely is an “LGBTQ+ gathering?” If you take these headlines literally, then it sounds like the government of Hungary has just made it illegal for gay people to appear in public, for any reason. It’s a total crackdown on figure skating, musical theater and art exhibitions. Gay people can’t even get together and watch “Glee” reruns on the couch without getting hauled to prison. This is the current state of Hungary, if you believe The Guardian and the Associated Press.
In reality, of course, Hungary has not banned gay people from assembling in public. What they’ve banned are disturbing and morally objectionable public displays of sexual hedonism that can easily be observed by children. That includes Hungary’s annual pride parade. Pull up any footage of this parade that’s posted online, and you’ll quickly see exactly what I’m talking about. Here’s some of it, or at least the parts we can play. This is from Budapest several years back:
And again, this is the most sanitized footage I could play. This is what the corporate press means when they say Hungary has banned “LGBTQ events” and “LBGTQ gatherings.” This is the truth behind the euphemism. They mean that Hungary has banned public indecency that everyone — including children — can see. In fact, in many cases, these public displays are explicitly directed at children. This is what “pride parades” always entail, as we’ve discussed dozens of times on this show.
If you actually look at the text of the amendment that just passed in Hungary — and again, it was an overwhelming vote in Hungary’s parliament, passing by a margin of 140 to 21 — then you’ll immediately understand why it passed. This is not simply an amendment about “pride parades” or “gay gatherings” or anything like that. It’s not, as the Associated Press claims, an amendment that constitutes a “major blow to rights.” In reality, it’s the exact opposite.
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This amendment, with very forceful and unapologetic language, affirms the right of everyone — and in particular children — to enjoy public spaces without being confronted by someone else’s sexual obsessions. As far as I know, this is the first major piece of legislation, and certainly the first constitutional amendment, to explicitly state that gay and trans activists are not, in fact, the only people on the planet with rights that deserve protection. Until relatively recently, that didn’t need to be spelled out.
Here’s the National Review’s summary of the amendment:
The amendment forbids LGBT pride parades that conservative lawmakers argued threatened the well-being of children. One of its provisions specifically declares that children’s rights to moral, physical, and intellectual development supersede the right to peaceful assembly and almost every other right, except the right to life. Hungarian authorities are also allowed to use facial recognition software to identify and potentially fine demonstrators at the newly prohibited pride parades if they are held in defiance of the law.
Yes, this amendment — which codifies a law passed by the parliament a few weeks ago — states that a child has a right to be protected physically, morally, and spiritually, and that this right supersedes the right of gay people to celebrate their sexuality in the town square. That’s exactly the right way to frame this situation. It’s certainly the honest way to frame it.
Virtually all of our cultural and political debates, regardless of the particular topic, ultimately come down to a battle of competing rights and interests. That’s not how you normally see policy debates framed, but it’s the truth. Even something as simple as a speed limit involves weighing various rights and interests. On the one hand, you have people’s reasonable interest in traveling to their destination quickly. On the other hand, you have people’s reasonable interest in not being killed in a high-speed car accident. These two interests are obviously in tension. If we wanted absolute safety on the highway, we’d set the speed limit to 5 miles per hour. But we don’t do that, because we’ve decided that other interests are more important. Every functioning society has to weigh competing interests like this, in every single area of policy.
The only way to sort through this mess is to come to some kind of understanding about which rights are most fundamental. With this amendment, Hungary has decided that, apart from the right to life, the most fundamental right is a child’s “right to protection and care for their adequate physical, mental and moral development.” You can agree or disagree with this philosophical claim — and of course I strongly agree with it. But regardless of your particular stance on the issue, you can’t deny that, at the very least, they are dealing with these questions in a clear and coherent way.
The opponents of the amendment, on the other hand, are not responding coherently. Instead, they’re reacting in exactly the kind of hysterical manner you would expect. They’re lying about the content of the amendment, as we just discussed. They’re also setting off smoke bombs in Hungary’s parliament and blocking the entrance to government buildings. Watch:
This is the response you expect from people who know they have no actual argument. They’ll blockade buildings. They’ll spread propaganda that has no basis in reality. They’ll detonate smoke bombs in parliament. But the one thing they won’t do — because they can’t do it — is rationally explain why you’re wrong, and they’re right. In this case, these LGBT activists simply cannot articulate any reason to oppose this amendment. And there are a couple of reasons for that. One of the reasons, of course, is that these so-called “pride parades” are indefensible, morally and practically. Every sane person knows that they should be banned from public streets. Anyone who’s ever seen footage of one of these parades understands this.
But the more fundamental issue is that, even if the pride parades weren’t bizarre, explicit, and objectionable, these activists would still have a problem. Put simply, the Leftist conception of human rights gives no real basis for objecting to this constitutional amendment. These people believe that rights are social constructs, codified by the government. They generally reject the idea that rights come from God. After all, it’s hard to make the case that the right to abort a baby created by God somehow comes from God. But if rights are social constructs, then society can abolish a right just as easily as it creates it. And that’s exactly what’s happened here. Hungary, through its democratically elected government, has decided that the absolute right to gay pride displays no longer exists in their culture. As a result, it makes no sense for the Leftist to object.
They can’t say that the rights of LGBT people are being infringed in Hungary. How could they? The right doesn’t exist anymore. There is no authority higher than society and government (according to them), and those authorities have spoken on the matter. That’s all there is to it.
In other words, gay activists are melting down in Hungary right now because they’re realizing, if only subconsciously, that their ideology can be erased just as quickly as it took hold. As it turns out, a fiction that’s maintained by a patchwork of laws and government policy can also be eliminated by law and government policy. And it’s not just the so-called LGBT community in Hungary that’s coming to this realization. In this country, as we’ve discussed, “pride parades” are also facing serious problems, mainly because the major sponsors are pulling out and people are losing interest. They’re going door-to-door in San Francisco right now to cover a multimillion-dollar funding shortfall for their pride events this summer. In every respect, these people are now weak and desperate.
If there were ever a moment to implement a Hungary-style ban on “pride parades” in this country, now is that time. Yes, activists in this country would inevitably act out, just like they’re doing in Hungary. But there are some things that are a lot more important than the feelings of screeching Left-wing protesters. One of them is the right of children to grow and develop and have their innocence protected. Hungary is now finally enforcing that right. For the benefit of every child in this country, we should do the same.
