UN castigates countries that are using coronavirus to persecute LGBTQ people

Map of the COVID-19 verified number of infected per capita as of 22 April 2020
Photo by: Raphaël Dunant – Wikimedia Commons

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a stark warning to members to not use the current coronavirus pandemic to persecute LGBTQ people.

Michelle Bachelet specifically mentioned Hungary and “an increase in homophobic and transphobic rhetoric” worldwide.

Related: Idaho GOP ignores coronavirus in favor of requiring medical tests for transgender student athletes

Hungary withdrew from the Eurovision song contest, claiming the decades-long international competition was promoting LGBTQ rights by including gay and transgender performers.

Last month, Hungarian parliament granted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the power to rule by decree as long as coronavirus is considered a threat to the nation. Orbán is an anti-LGBTQ extremist.

Lawmakers then filed a bill that requires the civil registry note only a person’s “sex at birth,” which it says is “biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes.” If passed, all legal documents in the country would only list a person’s sex assigned at birth.

“This attack on the trans community is outrageous and deliberate,” said Member of European Parliament Marc Angel, who is in the Socialist Workers’ Party and is from Luxembourg. “This move does not only intentionally silence the trans community – it seeks to erase it and deny its existence.”

“In at least one country, the State of Emergency has been used to…

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