Sky News host Liz Storer has voiced her support for new laws in Hungary which ban Pride gatherings.
The new laws which target Budapest’s annual Pride Parade call for anyone taking part in a Pride event to be fined the equivalent of AUD$857. Police have also been given permission to use facial recognition technology to track down people who take part in events.
Speaking on the program The Late Debate on Wednesday night Storer voiced her support for the new laws from the Orban government, which led to a fiery clash with guest host Freya Leach.
Leach from the right-wing thinktank The Menzies Institute said in Australia existing laws should be used to manage the behaviour of people at Pride parades.
“Some of the scenes you see from Pride marches in Australia and around the world are truly shocking. Public nudity, obscene acts on display for all to see, and there needs to be some line here, but that is why we have public decency laws.” she said.
Leach argued that children need to be protected from Pride events as they could potentially include “horrible sights that could scar them for life.” But she believed existing laws in Australia were sufficient, and laws like those passed in Hungary went against people’s right to gather freely.
“It’s got absolutely nothing to do with freedom of assembly.” Storer said. “If the were simply assembling with their clothes on and acting in an upstanding and decent way they would be allowed to assemble.”
While Storer’s depiction of Pride parades was a place where people are naked and behaving in an overtly sexualised manner, it’s hardly the reality of the Buddapest Pride Parade which is the focus of the ban. Photographs from multiple years of the daytime march are a far cry from Storer’s description of the event.
The daytime march which does not involve significant floats or performances in one event during the city’s annual Pride festival that also incudes film screenings, picnics, book readings, exhibitions and concerts.
Storer said Pride marches were events where people engaged in “adult behaviour”.
“We need to be very clear about what the bill has outlawed in terms of calling it child protection. It prohibits the depiction or promotion of homosexuality to anyone age eighteen in any content available to minors, so that means child’s programs, cartoons, educational facilities.
“Wouldn’t you love to see that here.” Storer said, noting that the Hungarian laws also prohibit any public display of “gender deviating from sex at birth.”
What the TV pundit voiced her support for the laws she skipped over is that the new laws also make it illegal for gay people in Hungary to gather and march down the street.
After Storer listed concern over LGBTIQA+ themed public art, drag queen story time events, and education policies in Australia, colleague James Macpherson asked if she was conflating a whole range of issues.
“Not at all” she replied. “Child protection is the issue that they are addressing.” when Macpherson highlighted that the Hungarian laws target every single person who takes part in the march regardless of their behaviour or dress standards.
Leach challenged Storer’s views noting that she was a vocal opponent of the Australian government’s recent social media bans for people under the age of sixteen, and Macpherson asked if she was being a hypocrite.
Storer said the two issues were not comparable, before arguing that scenes from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras shows on nightly news broadcasts could be harming young Australians.
“These things are broadcast on free to air TV, so even if you’re just watching the news your kids are going to see these scenes depicting and selling, marketing homosexuality and gender confusion to your children at a time when the government is already ramming it down their throats.” Storer said.
The new Hungarian laws have been condemned by human rights groups including Amnesty International. The European Union’s Equality Commissioner Hadja Lahbib has also spoken out against the move.
Budapest Pride has vowed to defy the laws and push on with their annual parade which has been taking place for 30 years.
“This is not child protection, this is fascism.” the group said on their social media platforms.
