Learn from Hungary’s strategy to prepare for Trump’s second term – Nonprofit News

As the United States prepares for a second Trump administration, LGBTQ+ Americans are bracing for what could be an unprecedented rollback of their rights. At the center of this immediate threat is Project 2025, a comprehensive policy agenda led by the Heritage Foundation that would dismantle protections for LGBTQ+ people, ban diversity initiatives, and eliminate gender affirmation under Medicaid. It aims to defund care. These measures reflect the authoritarian tactics employed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose anti-LGBTQ+ policies have reshaped Hungary’s legal system and national life over the past decade.

This positional relationship is no coincidence. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, has publicly praised Orbán’s government as a “model” for conservative politics. Mr Orban’s record highlights how constitutional reforms and censorship laws can be used to marginalize LGBTQ+ people and silence dissent, and Project 2025 aims to further curtail civil liberties. It is a roadmap for American politics.

“The United States is immediately feeling the effects of the impending Trump presidency,” Alison Chapman, an LGBTQ+ legislative researcher and transgender activist, told NPQ. “Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that transgender rights are likely to be significantly restricted this year, with devastating effects on the mental and physical health of transgender adults and children.”

President Orban’s systematic attack on LGBTQ+ rights

Since returning to power in 2010, Viktor Orbán’s government has systematically targeted LGBTQ+ rights as part of a broader nationalist agenda. Associate Professor Hadley Lenkin from Central European University (CEU) explained to NPQ: “Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz party have begun to target homosexuals, feminists and others as ‘anti-family’ as part of a new politics of nationalism,” “and an anti-national tradition regarding gender roles and relations.”

One of Orbán’s first actions after winning the election was to rewrite Hungary’s constitution to consolidate his power, and it has helped him maintain his grip on power ever since. In addition to weakening judicial independence, redrawing electoral maps, eroding press freedom, and weakening institutional checks and balances, these fundamental changes also restricted the rights and freedoms of Hungarian citizens. Marriage was clearly defined as “the union of a man and a woman,” and same-sex couples were excluded from legal recognition. The definition of family was limited to traditional heterosexual partnerships.

Nine years later, in 2020, Hungary passed a law abolishing legal recognition for transgender and intersex people and stripping them of the right to change their names or gender markers on official documents.

In 2021, the Hungarian parliament passed the “Don’t Say I’m Gay” law (which sparked similar anti-LGBTQ+ bills in multiple US states), restricting the depiction of LGBTQ+ topics in educational materials and media that are accessible to minors. and discussion was prohibited. The law not only restricted LGBTQ+ representation in television programming, but also led to legal action against content providers and bookstores, while encouraging widespread self-censorship among teachers and community groups.

“In Hungary, there were outreach classes run by lesbian and gay groups that traveled to schools, including high schools and middle schools,” Lenkin said. “They had to stop, because it’s a public expression of queerness, which they can’t do, and they were afraid of being accused of violating this law.”

Amnesty International’s research highlights how Hungary’s “Don’t Say I’m Gay” law perpetuates negative stereotypes and limits LGBTQ+ visibility in schools and the media. It has also reportedly led to an increase in homophobic attacks and the surveillance or closure of nonprofit organizations.

Orbán’s policies extend to academic institutions as well. As seen with the passage of Rex CEU in 2017, CEU, one of only two universities in the country offering master’s programs in gender studies, was forced to leave the country and relocate to Austria. At the same time, Hungary removed Gender Studies from its list of accredited academic programs and replaced it with “Economics of Family Policy and Public Policy for Human Development.”

Hungarian police are also targeting safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2017, Aurora, a cultural center vital to Budapest’s underground music and art scene and home to several non-profit organizations, was attacked and subsequently closed.

“What’s left? The underground culture, the bars, the clubs,” Renkin said.

However, spaces like Aurora have been attacked (an act that has been politically motivated due to its association with civil society organizations and progressive movements, including support groups for LGBTQ+ people and Roma minority people). Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community is increasingly oppressed. Toward a state of invisibility.

“Illiberal forces were able to succeed because of the lack of resistance and the perfect strategy of attacking specific institutions and specific locations to eliminate any room for resistance,” said CEU historian Andrea Pettu. he told NPQ.

Trump, Orbán, and the Conservative Connection

Hungary provides a chilling blueprint for US conservatives to implement similar anti-LGBTQ+ policies while consolidating power. As Petu pointed out, “Hungary is a laboratory whose works will be applied by other illiberal powers.”

Donald Trump and Viktor Orban have publicly praised each other’s policies and governing styles. Orbán was one of the few world leaders who supported Trump in the 2016 US presidential election and has met with him numerous times. During Orbán’s visit to the White House in 2019, President Trump praised Orbán’s leadership and said the Hungarian authoritarian was “highly respected.”

“Mr Orbán and Mr Trump are part of the same transnational movement that is involved not only in the transfer of know-how but also in the destruction and attack of liberal, human rights-based institutions and values ​​(as well as intellectuals and activists). ,” Pethu said.

The relationship between Orbán and the American far-right has only deepened over time, driven by a shared ideological mission to dismantle “gender ideology.” Weaponized by leaders like Orbán and Trump, the term frames LGBTQ+ people and the gender equality movement as a threat to traditional family values ​​and national identity. “Gender is the symbolic glue,” Pétu explained.

This partnership between Orbán and the American far-right has been further cemented through his participation in international conservative gatherings such as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where Orbán appealed to conservatives to “take back our institutions”. , has defended his “illiberal” model. Democracy. ”

Historian William Horne told NPQ: “With conservative institutional funding and support from the United States, Mr. Orbán has positioned himself as the standard-bearer of the transnational far right, giving “empowerment” to the Christian nationalist coalition. “I called on them to come together,” he said.

At CPAC in Budapest in 2023, Prime Minister Orbán criticized “woke movements and gender ideology” and positioned Hungary as a model of conservative governance. “Hungary is actually an incubator where experiments will be carried out on the future of conservative policy,” Orbán said. “Hungary is a place where we don’t just talk about defeating progressives and liberals and bringing about a conservative Christian political shift, we actually do it.”

And at the 2024 CPAC Europe conference, Orbán continued to rally conservatives, declaring, “Make America great again and make Europe great again!” Go Donald Trump, go European sovereigntists! ”

The coalition has also gained supporters in the United States, where far-right figures like Tucker Carlson have openly praised Orbán’s policies. In fact, Carlson broadcast an entire week of his show from Budapest in 2021, portraying Hungary’s cultural conservatism and strict immigration policies as a model for the United States.

Meanwhile, conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation are working with Orbán’s government to further strengthen cross-border collaboration. As a result, many anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-democratic state-level laws passed in states such as Florida closely mirror existing laws in Hungary.

“Many policies subsequently implemented in Hungary were reflected here as well: laws targeting LGBTQ+ people in schools, a crackdown on transgender healthcare, and transgender people by excluding us from existence. Things like removing people’s legal recognition,” says Erin, a transgender activist and journalist. Mr Reid told NPQ.

Scholars predict that the next government is likely to move laws like Orbán’s from the state to the federal level. In 2024, Mr. Orbán’s relationship with Mr. Trump deepened with a series of meetings in Florida, where he formally supported Mr. Trump’s presidential candidacy and participated in discussions with Mr. Trump and Elon Musk.

“The future has begun,” Orbán wrote to X.

Lessons in resilience: Coalition building and community care in Hungary

While Mr. Orbán’s policies serve as a blueprint for conservative politics, LGBTQ+ activists in the United States can learn from Hungarian activists’ strategies of resistance.

Hungarians take to the streets to rally students, workers, and workers at a time when legal recourse is often unavailable due to government control of the judiciary, erosion of media independence, and weakening of civil society and nonprofit organizations. formed a broad coalition of resistance. Marginalized communities rebelled against Orban’s illiberal policies.

As Pető advised, “What you can do is: (1) Preserve place and space. (2) Think about why this kind of violation is happening. (3) Emotions. (4) Try to organize at the local level.”

These tactics advocated by Pétu have been implemented by Hungarian organizers who defend independent spaces, organize local communities, and organize protests for various causes.

For example, in 2017, 10,000 people protested against the government’s crackdown on Lex CEU and academic freedom. Similarly, in 2018, 15,000 people marched against so-called “slavery laws” that allowed employers to demand increased overtime from workers. In response, 16 trade unions organized a strike.

In 2022, tens of thousands of teachers, parents, and students protested against low teacher pay, educational censorship, and the suppression of teachers’ right to strike after five teachers were fired at Budapest’s Kercyi Ferenc High School. Demonstrators formed human chains across the city, blocked Margaret Bridge for several hours, and teachers organized a wildcat strike, resulting in the largest protests in Hungary since 1989.

In June 2024, more than 30,000 people took part in Budapest Pride to protest against the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies.

During these protests, Hungarian organizers prioritized mutual aid and community care to support and protect communities. For example, during the Lex CEU protests, activists were met with a wave of support from academics, intellectuals, politicians, and communities around the world, pressuring governments to protect academic freedom.

Additionally, during the Slavery Law protests, trade unions and grassroots organizations worked together to provide financial and logistical support to workers participating in the marches.

By building long-term support systems and engaging in resistance strategies based on Hungarian organizing, U.S. activists can build resilient communities that can withstand and resist the authoritarianism of the second Trump administration.

“Authoritarian moments like this should remind us that it is perhaps more important to focus our work on creating communities, coalitions, institutions, etc. based on care,” Horn said. Ta. “After all, they offer not only protection from fascists, but also the possibility of liberation and transformation, a world in which fascism is impossible.”