Hungary: Campaign calls on LGBT people to vote invalid in the upcoming migrant quota referendum

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A social media campaign launched by the Hungarian LGBT Alliance calls on members of the LGBT community to participate in the upcoming referendum on migrant quotas, but cast an invalid vote to send a clear message to the government that hate mongering against any social group is unacceptable.

On 2 October  2016 Hungarian voters are called to the ballot box to cast their vote on the question: “Do you want to allow the European Union to mandate the resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the National Assembly?” The referendum was announced by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on 24 February 2016, as the culmination of a series of anti-migration and anti-refugee measures introduced in the preceding months.

The “refugee crisis” hit Hungary in the summer of 2015: while in 2012 2,157 persons applied for asylum in Hungary, between January and September 2015 175,963 did. Most of the asylum seekers did not want to remain in Hungary, but were heading to Western and Northern European countries. To avoid being sent back to Hungary, where they first entered the European Union (according to the so called Dublin procedure), many of those fleeing persecution entered the country illegally hoping to reach their target country without being registered. The Hungarian Government responded by erecting a barbed-wire fence on the Serbian-Hungarian border and introducing legislation that makes it practically impossible for people entering the country through its Southern border to apply for asylum in Hungary.

The Government also started an intensive media campaign to make the fight against immigration the number one political issue in the country. PM Orbán came out strongly against any forms of immigration: “We do not want our daughters, our wives to be harassed like in Cologne. We do not want to import homophobia, antisemitism and criminality, we do not want masses of migrants”. Government-published booklets were sent to each household emphasizing the negative impact of immigration, thousands of billboard posters were set up around the country with messages like: “Since the migration crisis started harassment against women has risen drastically”, “Brussels wants to settle a large number of migrants in Hungary equal to the size of a whole city”, “The Paris attacks were committed by migrants.” So far, the Government has spent 11,3 billion forints (c. 36.5 million euros) on the quota referendum campaign.

The Hungarian LGBT Alliance, the national umbrella organization bringing together registered LGBT organizations in the country launched a social media campaign on 23 September 2016 calling on members of the LGBT community to participate in the upcoming referendum, but cast an invalid vote. The question posed in the referendum makes no sense, as there is no policy proposal on the agenda of the EU that would make forced resettlement the solution to the migration crisis, thus no meaningful answer can be provided. By participating in the referendum and casting an invalid vote people can be active citizens, but express their discontent with hate campaign surrounding the referendum. A similar call has been put forward by dozens of other Hungarian NGOs working on various issues including migration, women’s rights, children’s rights, education and culture.

The campaign of the Alliance focuses on LGBT asylum seekers, and emphasizes our shared responsibility to provide a safe home for people who are persecuted in their home country due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. The campaign uses the central message “Your vote, their life” and carries the documentary image of a Syrian gay man thrown off from a tall building by ISIS warriors.