Many people were shocked when the Hungarian parliament has approved a draft law that would effectively ban same-sex adoption. It also tightens the definition of marriage and the family unit. Hungarian lawmakers passed a law that bans same-sex couples from adopting children. Family is Family is a campaign for rainbow families, and go against it.
They believe that the definition of family is more colorful than people sometimes think, and the most important thing that family is family, even if the parents happen to be the same sex. Campaigns and proposals for rainbow families began after parliament voted to amend the Constitution on the 15th of December last year, said above.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s conservative government proposed the legislation last year, and FIDESZ party has a two-thirds majority in parliament. This means, that every law or change proposed by FIDESZ will probably be accepted by the Hungarian parliament. The law says only married couples can adopt children and single people can only adopt with special permission from the state.
Adoption by gay and lesbian couples had been possible until now if one partner applied as a single person. Basically, right now gay marriage is forbidden in Hungary. Hungary’s parliament also backed a change to the constitution that defined what a family is. “The mother is a woman, the father is a man,” – the amendment said.
Back in November, the Family is Family campaign was launched, in which rainbow parents and experts responded to online hateful or hurtful comments. The aim of the campaign, in addition to sensitization and the dispelling of misconceptions, is to spread the problems in a wider circle of single or same-sex parents, or to put it another way, the problems of those parents who do not „conform” to the text of the Hungarian Constitution.
The campaign, which was joined, and is helped by many creative professionals, has created huge waves. So much so, that the topic appeared not only in high-profile influencers pages, but also in the advertising block of RTL Hungary’s channels, and then in its New Year’s Eve video.
More than forty brands have joined the campaign launched by the rainbow family community, the Rainbow Families Foundation said in a statement. The initiative was named after major global brands joined the campaign, such as IKEA, HBO, or Levi’s. Among the Hungarian companies, Sziget, Fruccola, and Netpincér also joined, but the Dutch Embassy is also present.
„So far, it’s amazing how many people this campaign has reached, but we want to continue because we still have to talk about the topic, we have to get to a lot of people. This is not just a matter for a couple of months,” – says one of the inventors of the action, Pál Márton, who is also a parent.
The purpose of joining companies is to express their agreement that the most important thing for a child is to grow up in a loving family. Companies express their views using the #familyisfamily hashtag, and there are some that have created a separate product to express their agreement.
„At first, we used our own network of contacts to find companies, but there were also very positive responses from places, who were not familiar with us at first. Big brands have joined, but there was also a lot of positive feedback from small and medium-sized businesses. This is a huge thing, because, in Hungary, this topic immediately gets a political tone, although this is issue normally has no political content. There are some who replace their logo, there are those who take special photo shoots, so we absolutely leave the form of participation to the brands. It is also important, that this is not an exclusive club, just like in the case of families, we are waiting for everyone here – anyone can join the initiative, for whom this topic is important.” – said Márton Pál.
Other brands, who joined the campaign include: CinemaCity, Joy, RTL Hungary, RTV Color, Marie Claire, MTV Hungary, Paramount Channel, and ComedyCentral.
Sources: dw.com, acsaladazcsalad.hu, mandiner.hu
