Hungarian authorities have fined a bookseller for selling a British graphic novel without closed wrapping - saying it breached a controversial law on LGBT literature for under-18s.
The Lira Kiskereskedelmi Kft retailer was fined 12m forints (£27,400) for selling a Heartstopper book without wrapping it in plastic foil. Officials said the book depicted homosexuality and was sold to minors. The love story, about two teenage boys, has been made into a Netflix series.
It’s not as simple. As we see from the US (but also to a tamer extend in some EU regions including in the bible-belts of western member states), even if the “market freedom” argument is established and there’s no doubt about the right to sell children’s literature with queer characters, those “concerned parents” move the goalpost to the school system (assigned reading in language classes) and libraries.
The argument that must be had is not about free markets, but about a child’s inalienable right to develop their personality outside the control of their parents. The statement “children do not belong to their parents” remains a controversial one. In one country I am familiar with, “our children belong to us, so the school does not have a right to talk to them about things we do not approve” is now being used against the introduction of (straight-only) sex education.
It’s more crucial to have a discussion about whether all children should have the right to read children’s literature with queer themes, not only the children of parents who do not oppose the idea.