How fanatical are European elites about LGBT? Look:

Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, said Hungary either “must leave” the EU or repeal the law, which bans TV shows and other content seen as championing LGBT lifestyles for the under-18s.

However, some eastern European governments refused to join 17 of the bloc’s 27 countries in a rare joint statement condemning a fellow member state.

The Hungarian government hit back against what it called the EU’s “shameful” interference in its domestic affairs.

Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, said the law was about “defending the rights of the kids and the parents” and claimed to be a fighter for gay rights when Hungary was under communist rule.

“Homosexuality was punished, and I fought for their freedom and their rights,” he said as he arrived at the summit. “So I am defending the rights of the homosexual guys. But this law is not about that.”

More:

While the EU has no power to force a country to leave, this could be achieved “step by step”, Mr Rutte told reporters in Brussels. “My goal is to bring Hungary to its knees on this issue,” he said.

“They must realise that they are either part of the European Union and this community of values, which means that in Hungary… no one can be discriminated against and [everyone] can feel free on grounds of sexuality, skin colour, gender whatever.”

Read it all. 

I wonder if Europe’s Muslims support the Hungarian law. If they do, is there no place for them in the European Union? Someone should ask the Dutch prime minister.

This is really extraordinary. A country that has been part of Europe for a thousand years is now regarded by other European leaders as unfit for their company because it bans a kind of sexualized material aimed at children — a ban that probably would have been supported by majorities in every European country forty or fifty years ago.

R.R. Reno reads the rainbow-hued handwriting on the wall:

The rainbow flag has taken on special significance in our regime. It is the flag of our globalist elites, symbolizing “diversity and inclusion,” principles that they regard as the source of their right to rule.

“Regime” is a technical term in political philosophy. It refers to the source of political authority. A regime defines essential matters about which “we all agree.” This agreement establishes the boundaries of legitimate political contestation, and it treats as traitors, rebels, and revolutionaries those who overstep and transgress.

America’s regime has long been that of a constitutional republic. We litigate, organize, and in some cases protest. Politicians exploit procedures to angle for advantage. Elections are contested. And all of this is supposed to operate under the limits imposed by our rule of law. But our regime is always more than constitutional provisions. It also concerns what counts as a legitimate opinion in public life, and what is beyond the pale. In this domain we have undergone regime change.

Yes, even the pro-life Catholic conservative Democratic governor of Louisiana takes a knee before the rainbow flag. He vetoed a bill that would have protected female athletes from trans competitors.

The regime change is even more pronounced in Europe. More:

So it’s not surprising that our elites have embraced the rainbow flag. It flutters over our universities and is featured in the windows of global corporations. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street—drivers of globalization and the breaking of boundaries—wave the pride flag.

The rainbow flag represents the regime that our globalized elites intend to sustain. As a regime, it treats dissent as illegitimate. Those who object to the rainbow flag and what it represents are not fellow citizens concerned that society cannot function without clear social markers of the differences between men and women. They are “haters” and “bigots.”

… America spawned the open-society consensus, which over time evolved into the open-border, open-trade, diversity and inclusion regime now pressed upon us as so self-evident and non-controversial that it is obligatory. Our country invented the rainbow flag and our embassies export it to the entire world. But populism bids fair to strengthen rather than weaken. It challenges the hegemony of our globalized elites and the regime they insist must determine public life. I predict that the time is coming, perhaps soon, when our elites will suppress the American flag and wave all the more insistently the rainbow substitute.

Read it all. 

The rainbow flag is the “Workers Of The World, Unite” sign from the Havel’s Greengrocer Myth. Viktor Orban is Havel’s greengrocer. American conservatives, pay attention!

This letter came today from a Hungarian reader:

I see you’ve written about our soccer woes, but I’m not sure the events surrounding the Germany-Hungary match reached you. It’s not just the whole “lighting up the stadium in rainbow colours” row. The German authorities behaved really shamefully:

1, They didn’t let Hungarian consuls accompany the supporters to help mediate with local authorities

2, Several groups of supporters were detained for hours, and only let go after the Hungarian government intervened (the Germans later explained that they received information about “problematic” groups infiltrating the Hungarians)

3, I read on fora that even “regular guys”, so not the organized, black-clad supporter groups but normal, balding, 40-ish dads with kids were pushed to the wall and searched, multiple times

4, A pitch invader with a rainbow flag ran into the field during the Hungarian national anthem

5, Around the 80 minute mark, military police officers lined up in front of the Hungarian supporters, who weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary. in a few minutes, the Germans equalized…

This is truly outrageous. I don’t care about the rainbow lights, the rainbow flags, the Germans are entitled to their own opinion in these matters. I do think it’s misguided, as Orbán wasn’t even there, so who were they protesting? Whatever, let Germany virtue-signal themselves to death for all I care. But treating innocent supporters like this is insane.

And then came Mark Rutte, who said publicly that we “must kneel” in the matter of the recent laws regarding homosexuality. These guys are not even trying to mask their efforts to dominate us into submission.

But if they think that this will defeat Orbán, they are very much mistaken. On the contrary. Many Hungarians are on the fence about the government, but when they hear such words, they will surely turn out and vote for Orbán. Hungarians prefer someone who stands to someone who kneels.

So does this American.

UPDATE: The European Parliament has approved the Matic Report, which defines abortion as a human right, and essential to democracy. It has thereby defined all faithful Catholics and pro-lifers of any confession as a threat to democracy and human rights. More:

Speaking in the debate, Matić said: “Tomorrow is a great day for Europe and the entire progressive world. Tomorrow we decide on positioning Europe as a community that chooses to live in the 21st or the 17th century. Don’t let history remember us as the latter ones.”

Read the signs of the times.

UPDATE.2: From Le Parisien, this comment from French President Emmanuel Macron about the Hungarian law (I have translated it from the French):

“It’s a terrible setback. It is a cultural, civilizational battle that we must wage. We will not give in to it.”

Think about that. The president of the French Republic believes that defending the “right” of children to receive trans propaganda is a “civilizational” battle. And you know what? He’s right — just not for the reason he thinks. Understand, reader, what this means: this is an attack on Christianity and the traditional family. Macron believes that Christian teaching on sexuality and gender, and the right of a society to decide what is appropriate for its children to learn with regard to sex and gender, is incompatible with civilization.

This is a precursor to actual persecution of Christians. Päivi Räsänen awaits criminal trial in Finland for having tweeted a verse from Romans that criticized homosexuality, for something she wrote 15 years ago defending the Christian position on homosexuality, and for criticizing the Finnish Lutheran Church’s stance on Pride. This is the “cultural, civilizational battle” that power-holders like Emmanuel Macron are waging against Christians and other heretics.

UPDATE.3: Here is an op-ed by Judit Varga, the Hungarian justice minister, that Politico Europe refused to publish:

For almost 10 years, indisputable declarations about the death of Hungarian democracy have been published in the international press on a regular basis. And yet, despite crying wolf over and over again, there has never been any wolf – unfortunately, those crying out also never seem to tire of their deceit.

This time it is declared that Hungary adopted a discriminatory, homophobic law. No one cares that the declaration signed by several member states contains false allegations and falsifies the merit of the Hungarian law by suppressing essential parts thereof. No one cares to notice that the focus of the law is the protection of children from any kind of sexuality – hence it cannot, by definition, be discriminatory. The signatory member states did not even bother to ask for an official explanation from the Hungarian government before issuing their joint letter. Criticisms instead have generated an artificial conflict between the rights of children and the rights of LGBT. Is this really the embodiment of the loyal cooperation enshrined in the Treaties?

The new law focuses on guaranteeing the rights of parents and protecting minors from accessing content that may contradict the educational principles their parents chose to teach them until they become adults themselves. Until that time, however, all other actors – be it the state or schools – shall respect the rights of parents to decide on the sexual education of their children. This is what Hungary’s new law is about.

It should also be noted that Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states that the right of parents to ensure the education and teaching of their children in conformity with their religious, philosophical and pedagogical convictions shall be respected, in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of such freedom and rights.

The Hungarian law does not apply to the lives, sexual identity or practices of adults over the age of 18 — nor to how said adults wish to express or present themselves publicly.

Sexual orientation and gender identity fall under strict constitutional protection in Hungary. According to Article XV paragraph (2) of the Fundamental Law, Hungary shall guarantee fundamental rights to everyone without discrimination. Since 2004, the Equal Treatment Act has clearly stated in Article 1 that all persons in the territory of Hungary must be treated with the same respect and explicitly forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The provisions do not exclude any activity in class or organised otherwise for students relating to sexual culture, behaviour, development or orientation — as long as it does not promote or propagate such topics. It merely expects that only qualified experts depict these highly sensitive issues to the children in an age-appropriate and evidence-based manner, thus contributing to their proper upbringing with appropriate direction and guidance from their parents and legal guardians.

In Hungary, everybody is free to express their sexual identity as they see fit, as Hungarian legislation guarantees fundamental rights to the full extent for each minority. It is no contradiction that it also guarantees the right and obligation of parents to educate their children. There is nothing discriminatory about this.

This is not the first time, however, that the Europeanness of a Hungarian law has been interpreted by some who choose to prejudge without first requesting the facts. The political declaration condemning the new Hungarian law is shameful, not only because it runs against loyal cooperation but also because the declaration incorporates a biased political opinion without a previously conducted, impartial inquiry.

This is also not the first time that Hungarian legislation has been labelled as discriminatory. However, the truth is, implying that this law is anti-EU discriminates solely against those who, in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, adhere to their right for the education of children to be decided upon by their parents.

You see this over and over and over again in the US, regarding transgenderism and children: progressive school authorities claiming the “right” to form children’s sexual identity separate from the desires of their parents, and even secretly in contradiction to what their parents want (e.g., through formal policies of not telling parents when their child expresses, in school, a different gender identity from how they were born).