Maltese Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer, convicted of distributing gay revenge porn in 2014, is leading the European Union’s battle against Hungary’s law banning the teaching of LGBT and gender issues to children.
Hungary’s new law is intended to prohibit schools from teaching children about alternative sexualities and transgenderism and restrict similar content aimed at children in the media, with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán insisting that decisions about such education should be up to parents, and that “parents also rightly expect that on platforms used by our children, pornography, sexuality for its own sake, homosexuality and gender reassignment programs should not be available.”
The Hungarian law has been criticised by many leaders within the European Union, including Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, who stated: “The goal is to force Hungary to its knees regarding this issue. They have to understand that they are… part of the European Union and the community of shared values we are”.
Cyrus Engerer, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Malta, will be leading work on a resolution in the European Parliament against Hungary over the new law — but on Tuesday Hungary’s Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations, Zoltan Kovacs, highlighted Engerer’s past behaviour and revenge porn conviction.
“Let me get this straight. Socialist MEP Cyrus Engerer, convicted in a Maltese court for ‘revenge porn’, is now the one responsible in the [European Parliament] for questioning HU’s child protection law?” Kovacs wrote, adding: “Is this case going to be similar? I mean, like an act of revenge?”
Kovacs linked to a 2014 article from the Malta Independent newspaper, which stated that Engerer had been given a two-year suspended sentence for distributing pornographic material of his former male partner Marvic Camilleri to the latter’s work colleagues after the pair parted ways on Christmas 2009.
Let me get this straight. Socialist MEP Cyrus @engerer, convicted in a Maltese court for “revenge porn”, is now the one responsible in the EP for questioning HU’s child protection law? Is this case going to be similar? I mean, like an act of revenge? https://t.co/ncon8txzNU
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) July 6, 2021
Engerer spoke out about his opposition to the Hungarian LGBT law, stating: “The European Union is no place for the politics of hate. The fact that Orban has introduced a Russian styled homophobic law into the European Union’s own legislative framework must be condemned, and punished. All human beings must be protected.”
Earlier this week, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke out about EU opposition to the new legislation, saying: “They behave like colonialists. They want to dictate what laws should take effect in another country, they want to tell us how to live our lives and how to behave.”
Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga has also defended the law, arguing: “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,” she said.
“They behave like colonialists. They want to dictate what laws should take effect in another country, they want to tell us how to live our lives and how to behave,” the Hungarian leader said https://t.co/PSOj0zXLw9
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 5, 2021
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