Elle Hungary: Two gay dads and their baby appear on cover in pushback against anti-LGBTQ+ laws
In an Instagram post, the magazine's team said they want to “contribute to the acceptance of rainbow families”
Two gay dads and their daughter have appeared on the cover of Elle Hungary in a defiant act of resistance against the Hungarian government’s oppression of LGBTQ+ people.
The image shows gay couple Hubert Hlatky Schlichter and Laszlo Szegedi tenderly kissing their five-month-old baby daughter, Hannabel.
The move follows a slew of anti-LGBTQ laws introduced in the country under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative Fidesz party.
In June 2021, for example, the government introduced legislation banning positive representation of LGBTQ+ life to under-18s.
The name of the law, which conflates LGBTQ+ existence with paedophilia, is ‘The Act LXXIX of 2021 on taking more severe action against paedophile offenders and amending certain Acts for the protection of children.’
“Acceptance of rainbow families”
In an Instagram post, Elle Hungary’s team said they want to “contribute to the acceptance of rainbow families” and “campaign all over the country for love and all forms of family.”
A spokesperson added: “Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, caring and supportive environment and no one can prevent this based on their parents’ gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Teasing the accompanying feature, the post went on: “Hubert Hlatky-Schlichter and Dr. László Szegedi confess honestly about the difficulties and prejudices they had to face as a gay couple at home and how fate-changing the arrival of their little girl was for them.
“With their story, we want to send a message to everyone who has felt that they or their loved ones have been attacked more recently: you are not alone and there is a positive scenario!”
Since coming to power in 2010, Orbán has also updated the Hungarian constitution to define families as “based on marriage and the parent-child relation [whereby] the mother is a woman, the father a man.”
As Hungary has not achieved marriage equality, this essentially outlaws the adoption of children by same-sex couples.