Transgender couple marry despite Hungary's new non-recognition laws
Thomas Wintle

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Transgender couple Elvira Angyal and Tamara Csillag pose for a picture after their wedding in Polgardi, Hungary. /Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Transgender couple Elvira Angyal and Tamara Csillag pose for a picture after their wedding in Polgardi, Hungary. /Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

 

The wedding day of Hungarian transgender couple Tamara Csillag and Elvira Angyal started off like so many, with the jittery pair dressing up before travelling to a court room to enshrine their marriage into law. 

However, LGBTQ people are facing an increasingly hostile existence, under Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, which has outlawed the legal recognition of transgender identity.

Ironically, this is what allowed Csillag and Angyal's wedding to take place: Csillag was left with male documents while Angyal had already completed her transition prior to the law changing. 

 

 

Dream come true

"Our dream has come true. We are so happy to have received an official seal on our relationship," Angyal said following the ceremony, holding hands with her new wife.

The newly-weds had rocky journeys on their way to transitioning, with both having families as men before coming out to live as women. 

Angyal's son Patrik was there to witness the wedding. "One of the biggest joys in life is to see your parents happy," he said.

Rights groups say Orban's government, formed by his Fidesz party's allegiance with the small Christian Democratic party KDNP, has targeted the LGBTQ community since winning a third term in 2018.

"For a decade the government has waged a systematic campaign against LGBTQ people," said Luca Dudits of the Hatter rights group. "This contradicts European norms and general human rights."

 

Rights groups say Viktor Orban's government has targeted the LGBTQ community since winning a third term in 2018. /John Thys/Pool via Reuters

Rights groups say Viktor Orban's government has targeted the LGBTQ community since winning a third term in 2018. /John Thys/Pool via Reuters

 

Cracking down

Angyal and Csillag's marriage came just one day after Hungary's Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen proposed to constitutionally ban so-called "gender propaganda."

"They should not be called family, because that is a sacred notion," Semjen said. "They should not adopt children, because children's right to healthy development is stronger than homosexual couples' need for a child."

As the European Union's top bodies launch a strategy to tackle discrimination against LGBTQ people, the EU's equality chief said on Thursday she was disheartened by Hungary's ban on transgender people changing their legal sex.

 

Angyal and Csillag's marriage comes just one day after Hungary's Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen proposed to constitutionally ban so-called "gender propaganda". /Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Angyal and Csillag's marriage comes just one day after Hungary's Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen proposed to constitutionally ban so-called "gender propaganda". /Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

 

"It's very sad for me to see this kind of legislation," EU Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli said of the ban, which was put in place earlier this year.

Under its new strategy, the EU's executive branch are set to propose a law by 2022 to make sure same-sex parents are recognized as such when crossing borders with their children.

It will also propose to make anti-LGBTQ hate crime a "Eurocrime" alongside offences such as terrorism and human trafficking.

Newly-wed Csillag insisted that anti-LGBTQ messaging and legal moves from the Hungarian government would not shake her.

"The next generation might indeed grow up haters. They will hate us even as they won't know why," she said. "What harms children is what the government does."

 

Source(s): Reuters