Subj : MTV: Awards Show in Hungary Will Show Stand Against Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws
To : All
From : Major Queen
Date : Fri Oct 22 2021 03:48 am
BY TRUDY RING
OCTOBER 19 2021 3:15 PM EDT
The MTV Euro Music Awards will be held as planned November 14 in Budapest,
the capital of Hungary, despite the country's anti-LGBTQ+ laws, an MTV
executive said Tuesday.
"We're looking forward to using the event to amplify our voices and stand in
solidarity with our LGBTQ siblings," Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of MTV
Entertainment Group Worldwide, told the Associated Press.
McCarthy was preparing a memo to employees about the matter, apparently
expecting criticism for holding the show in Hungary, such as Netflix has
received over comedian Dave Chappelle's anti-LGBTQ+ remarks in a recent
special. MTV made a deal two years ago to have the awards program in Budapest.
That the show will go on "may surprise anyone who knows that in June of this
year, Hungary passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation banning television content
featuring gay people during the day and in primetime," he noted in the memo,
according to the AP. Such programming may be broadcast only overnight,
ostensibly so children won't see it. The law, similar to the notorious one
passed in Russia in 2013, forbids display of LGBTQ+ content in venues
accessible to minors, including schools, media, and more.
McCarthy, who is gay, said he initially wanted to move the show, but after
consulting with MTV colleagues and global LGBTQ+ activists, he and other MTV
executives decided keeping the program in Budapest would make a statement.
"We should move forward, using the show as an opportunity to stand in
solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community in Hungary and around the world as we
continue to fight for equality for all," he wrote in the memo.
The ceremony will include presentation of MTV's Generation Change Award to
young LGBTQ+ activists. The award is given in partnership with advocacy group
All Out, whose executive director, Matt Beard, who said maintaining the show
in Budapest is "absolutely the right decision," the AP reports.
The government will not be allowed to censor the show, McCarthy added.
"That's always a condition regardless of whatever country we go into," he
said.
Hungary, under far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orb�n, has enacted several
anti-LGBTQ+ laws in recent years. In 2020, Parliament approved laws barring
same-sex couples from adopting and transgender people from changing the
gender marker on their birth certificates; the nation's highest court has
ruled that the latter one cannot be applied retroactively.
