Hungary orders booksellers to cover up children’s books with LGBT themes

Hungary’s government has ordered booksellers to cover up children’s books that contain LGBTQ themes, The Washington Post reported.

The new government order says children’s books depicting homosexuality must be in “closed packaging,” bans the sale of books and media that depict homosexuality and gender change that is within 200 meters of a nearby school or church and and prohibits the public display of products that show gender deviating from a sex assigned at birth. 

Some booksellers and writers in the country have shared concern they could face prosecution if minors end up with the barred books, according to the Post. 

The new measure adds to the previous one the conservative government passed in June that forbids the display of homosexual content to minors, the Post reported. 

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban calls the new measure a way to protect the country’s children.

Critics compared the new measure to the Russian law that was passed in 2013, adding that it helps mobilize the government’s conservative voters for the next year’s election, the Post noted.