THE GUARDIAN: Sixteen EU leaders sign open letter vowing to fight discrimination of LGBTQ+ people before summit
European Union leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel have signed a letter vowing to fight discrimination towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people before an expected confrontation with Viktor Orbán over a Hungarian law widely condemned as an assault on the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
The letter published on Thursday does not mention Hungary explicitly, but the timing is no accident and the stage is set for a tense encounter on Wednesday between the Hungarian prime minister and many of his counterparts at an EU summit in Brussels.
Hungary’s parliament last week adopted a bill that will ban gay people from being shown in educational materials, on prime-time TV, or shows and films aimed at children. The government claims the law is intended to protect children, but campaigners and the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner say those arguments are “misleading and false”. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels | Thursday, June 24, 2021
