Hungary issues fine over book featuring LGBTQ ‘rainbow families’

Authorities in Hungary have fined a bookshop chain over a book portraying LGBTQ families, citing a law prohibiting unfair commercial practices.

The book, “Micsoda család! (What a Family!),” is the combined Hungarian translation of two books by American author Lawrence Schimel with illustrations by Elīna Brasliņa and translated by Anna T. Szabó: “Early One Morning,” which features a boy with his two moms, and “Bedtime, Not Playtime!,” which features a girl with her two dads.

With the two books, Schimel and Brasliņa wanted to “offer fun stories that just happen to take place in queer families,” the author told the Daily News.

“Because hopefully, queer families spend most of their time doing family things and not only fighting homophobia, and we felt it was important to show that,” he added.

Bedtime, Not Playtime!, written by Lawrence Schimel and illustrated by Elīna Brasliņa. (Lawrence Schimel and Elina Braslina)

However, authorities in Pest County, near Hungary’s capital Budapest, didn’t agree.

Earlier this week the Pest County Government Office issued a fine of 250,000 forints ($830) to the Líra Könyv bookshop chain for failing to indicate that the book contained “content which deviates from the norm.”

“This book was placed among other books of fairy tales and this way they breached the law,” Richard Tarnai, Pest County government commissioner, told Hungarian television station HirTV, according to Reuters.

“The unfair practice is when... you cannot see that a family different from a normal family appears in this book. If this notice is there, it’s OK,” Tarnaj said.

A label on the book now warns readers that, “The book contains patterns of behavior other than traditional gender roles.”

Schimel, who was “shocked by the homophobic attacks surrounding this book,” said that he was also surprised to see how fast news about the fine spread — and how the incident helped to highlight the Hungarian government’s “attempts to suppress culture and information about queer lives.”

Bedtime, Not Playtime!, written by Lawrence Schimel and illustrated by Elīna Brasliņa. (Lawrence Schimel and Elina Braslina)

Lira Könyv said in a statement that it would not put a warning label on the book, opting to post a sign at the front of the shop reading, “In this bookstore we sell books with different content than traditional ones.”

Another bookshop chain, Book24.hu, wrote that, “Many of our 47,000 books have non-traditional content. This makes literature colorful.”

Although the book was fined under a law banning unfair trade practices, Hungary is already under fire over its controversial new anti-LGBTQ law.

The discriminatory legislation — which was proposed by the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, and approved by Hungary’s parliament in a 157-1 vote — bans LGBTQ content in schools or television programs for people under the age of 18.

Despite widespread condemnation and outrage from world leaders — and a warning by the European Commission that the country’s intolerant stance could lead to legal action and sanctions — the law went into effect on Thursday.

“Early One Morning” and “Bedtime, Not Playtime!” have been published in a number of different languages around the world, “and we’re in discussion with various others in new languages or countries,” Schimel said.

And that is “amazing, and something to be cherished,” he added. “It shows how necessary stories like these are — for all kids, not only kids in same-sex families. Stories that reflect the diverse, colorful world that we — including kids — live in.”

The books will hit U.S. bookshelves on Sept. 14, published by Orca Book Publishers.