In recent years, Hungary has been carrying out an extensive anti-LGBTQIA+ campaign, which includes The LXXIX Act of 2021. This law, among other things, prevents raising awareness among minors about sexuality and gender identities, and any propagation of LGBTQIA+ content to minors through media literature, television, film, and advertising is sanctioned. The law has significantly impacted Hungarian publishing and bookselling, as bookstores face extremely high fines for non-compliance. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has severely undermined democratic standards, and with an open anti-LGBTQIA+ campaign, he is waging a broader cultural war that he uses to promote conservative and nationalist ideas. In my thesis, I contextualized The LXXIX Act of 2021 in line with theories of populism and political homophobia and confirmed it as the operationalization of the Fidesz party's ideology. Given the significant impact of the law on the book market, I used the semi-structured interview method to explore how the publishing and bookselling sector of children’s and young adult literature is adapting to the ideological pressure brought by the law’s requirements. I confirmed the thesis that publishers and booksellers are adapting to the law with new strategies, such as moving books with LGBTQIA+ themes to adult sections, and a high degree of (self-)censorship was also confirmed. Finding new ways to circumvent the law was not a priority for any of the interviewees.
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