Europe

Thanks for the extensive comment, but unfortunately the EU can't take Hungary to court. They also ignored the ICC order to arrest Netanyahu. I know I sound very cynical by quoting this, but it seems a very true to me (and Orban) right now.

Laws without enforced consequences are merely suggestions.

And that's a 2/3 majority of seats, right? Not votes, not popular support.

We have a similar system in the Netherlands but a meaningful difference is that you don't only need a 2/3 majority but also a 'confirming' vote by the next coalition. This might not do much in a case like Hungary or Turkey where the next ruler is similar as the previous but there having to be a public vote in between can potentially greatly shift the powers and end the majority.

Just like there was nothing wrong with Jews, they need a public enemy and they can't pick people from the majority so they've picked non-whites non-straights and non-females. Also lines up with the Christian believe system, which have been using LGBTQ people as scapegoat since they stopped burning witches.

So first of all, the only reason to do this is to achieve authoritarian control, simply because many people want more power. Power is the end goal, not what you want to do with that power, they simply want more of it. This is the overarching theme for all of their actions.

And yes, in a society where the general public has more power than the ruling class, theoretically, they have to get public support. "Protecting the children" sounds good to the general public. Read the article to see how the law is worded: "children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including the right to peacefully assemble"

But the actual reason for why the war against LGBTQ specifically is popular, is a sentiment among many people that sexuality is evil, and only barely acceptable just to facilitate childbirth. If you look at LGBTQ, almost everything within it is for free sexuality, and if you're gay, lesbian, trans, asexual for example, that theoretically directly goes against childbirth. Thus the rationale against LGBTQ is, they don't want their kids turned LGBTQ by never even learning that it is an option for them. No public events => children never get in contact with it => children don't become LGBTQ.

No, it's purely distraction and building more support. A power play, if you will. It is the 15th time Fidesz has modified (unilaterally) the Hungarian constitution that they wrote about 15 years back.

With the same stroke they are also enshrining that drugs are bad and for some reason, the right to use cash. Alternatively many opposition politician's have had their immunity revoked. And personally a scary one, dual citizens can lose citizenship for reasons.

As for the anti-gay sentiment. In the capital I would say it's not a thing, but two guys holding hands walking down an empty street could get accosted. In smaller cities I've noticed that being openly gay is tolerated, but frowned upon. I'm sure the propaganda brainwashed many, there were plenty of haters to begin with anyway. Kids use gay and fag about the same way as Cartman from South Park.

The mayor of Budapest is still planning on hosting the Pride festival this year.

This probably violates a bunch EU human rights, but what is the EU gonna do? They really need to find tools because freezing the cashflow is obviously not stopping him.

In some countries constitutional ammendments need to be compatoble with whatever constitutional law already exists

But what about EU primary law and the EHRC? Wouldn’t be the first time constitutional law is deemed incompatible with EU or international law.

Tricky. Protecting "morals" and the "moral development" of children is one thing that justifies a lot of limitations of rights.

Using that to suppress LGBTQ is not a distortion but has always been a point, maybe the main point, of obscenity laws. A few decades ago, such laws would have been A-OK. Maybe today, a court would rule that this goes too far.