European Union of the Deaf VP Dr. Gergely Tapolczai resigns after controversy for voting against gay rights in Hungarian parliament
You know in the European continent, there are 44 countries and 27 countries out of those have an unique economic and political union called European Union (EU) with an estimated total population of 447 million.
[Image of EU flag and map of member countries]
The EU has goals and values including equality for all citizens and their human rights are protected. The EU and the European Union of the Deaf (EUD) represents deaf people in these 27 countries. If you’re a member of the EU, you’re a member of the EUD as well.
[Image of EUD logo]
EUD’s members comprise of National Associations of the Deaf (NADs) i.e. Italy, France, Germany, Hungary. EU and EUD’s offices are in Brussels, Belgium.
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On February 5, EUD announced the resignation of their Vice President Dr. Gergely Tapolczai.
[Photo of Dr. Gergely Tapolczai, Credit: EUD]
Tweet: @EUD_Brussels: EUD Board hereby informs of the resignation of Dr Gergely Tapolczai as the Vice President of the EUD. The decision to resign was unanimously taken by the EUD Board members, including Dr Gergely Tapolczai, during the EUD Board Meeting on 4 February 2021.”
I was taken back by the news because Dr. Tapolczai was not only the vice president of the EUD, he has another important role in Hungary as a politician. Dr. Tapolczai is the first Deaf politician in the Hungarian parliament. Here in the US, we would call him “congressperson.” Today, in the U.S., we still haven’t had an elected Deaf person who uses sign language in our Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Tapolczai is the first Deaf, signing person.
[Image of Hungarian parliament]
I wanted to find out why and what happened. I contacted Jesada Pua who is from here and he has worked abroad in Hungary for 2 and a half years. He explained further about the situation. Dr.Tapolczai is a member of a far-right wing (conservative) political party called Fidesz.
[Image of FIDESZ logo]
He voted in favor of a proposal to bar LGBT parents from adopting children. He voted in favor of the ban.
[Image of Reuters article from December 2020 with the headline, “Hungary’s parliament passes law effectively banning same-sex adoption”]
Jesada recommended me to contact those individuals who were active about this situation and called on the EUD. I read their comments on Twitter and Facebook. It turned out they are indeed passionate.
Tweet: @emilo_chr: “Everyone thinks we’re done with EUD after the resignation of their VP. It’s not over because we have responsibilities to promote diversity in the board. So if you do know a LGBT/BIPOC person who could make a change in EUD, recommend the person to your NAD!”
Tweet: @dennis_hgv: A wise and unavoidable decision. Thanks for finally listening to the deaf lgbtqi+ community in Europe.” (Two rainbow flag emojis)
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I decided to reach them; Emilo Christensen from Denmark and Dennis Hoogeveen from the Netherlands asking them questions to shed the light and share with you.
Callie: Why was it problematic for you as an individual? What is your perspective?
Emilo Christensen: I clearly feel this is not OK. He oppresses a group in his own country and yet he is a member of the EUD Board, who supports everyone and promotes non-discrimination. That is contradictory, clearly a clash of interests. It doesn’t promote the EUD's mission and it oppresses Deaf LGBTQIA+. EUD cannot create a safe space for LGBTQIA+. As European citizen I cannot agree that someone neglects rights for a part of the Deaf community.
Dennis Hoogeveen: Maybe it has no impact on me directly, as I am from the Netherlands and gay rights are pretty solid here. I feel safe here, I am happy. But the danger is to forget what happens in other countries, what happens with people who are not as fortunate as I am. I want to be there to support everyone in Europe to have the same rights. The world also. I knew Deaf LGBTQIA+ and allies from Hungary were very unhappy with those reforms. I didn’t want to ignore them. Because there were clearly a clash of interests from the Hungarian parliament and the EUD Board, but the deaf community remained silent, and some thought we should just move on as usual. But this system is not okay.
Callie: Some people suggest that you promote 'cancel culture' and that we should respect Dr. Tapolczai’s personal political beliefs, that he has two separate roles; VP of EUD and a Hungarian MEP. His voting decisions in Hungary must not affect his position as VP of EUD. Can you provide responses to those comments?
EC: The cancel culture does not apply in this situation. Gergely has indeed two roles, but it is just not acceptable what he did. There is no excuse for it. So if the EUD's aim is to achieve sign language rights for everyone and the VP who is a politician is faced with sign language rights in his country — for example if there is a proposal to oppress sign language, would he vote for that? Would that not contradict EUD’s aims as well? What is the difference? EUD says no discrimination for everyone, would this not apply on LGTBQIA+ as well?
DH: We have not questioned his commitment but rather his principles. We are not questioning his work with sign language rights and managing affairs with the EUD. I have no criticism on him as a person and his work. But when it comes to human rights, it is a contradiction. We are talking about this.
As mentioned earlier, intersectionality is important. When he made a vote to take away the rights of the LGBTIQA+ community, He also took it away from the deaf LGBTIQA+ community in Hungary.
How can he then, in good faith, say that he is committed to ensuring fighting for European deaf people’s rights, which includes LGBTIQA+ rights?
If he has taken away rights from those in Hungary, European deaf LGBTIQA+ community now doubts his integrity and moral principles. When you are an elected official for a European association, that means you are in a position of trust. He broke that trust.
Callie: I want to say thank you, Emilo and Dennis, for sharing your thoughts and feelings about the situation. Especially I want to praise you and others who got involved in your activism work. It sure sets a good example for others to see!
We reached out to Dr. Tapolczai and asked him four questions. He was able to send a video response. We will show the questions and his responses.
Hello, my name is Gergely Tapolczai. My sign name (shows name sign). I was born and raised Deaf and I used sign language for all of my life. My work started in 2010 in the Hungarian parliament as a MEP. I am also a board member of the Hungarian Deaf and Hard of Hearing Association. In addition, since 2009, I have been a board member for the European Union of the Deaf (EUD). Since 2017, I have been the Vice President of EUD.
Question: You belong to the Fidesz political party, which is the most powerful party in Hungary. You voted in parliament to be opposed to gay people adopting. Can you explain why you voted that way?
GT: The largest political party in Hungary is called Fidesz. I’m not in that party, but with a smaller party that is part of the parliament, the fraction of the Fidesz party, that one I am involved with. You must understand something about the parliament vote. The aim first is family which means a man and a woman who are married can adopt children. Other people like LGBTQ, heterosexual, domestic, single, has a life partner that is recognized by the government, LGBTQ, heterosexual, all of them in that group can adopt children. However, it has to be in a different way. They have to ask the minister. The minister will decide to approve the request or not. As for the law, the first goal is family.
The media, Facebook, Twitter, kind of twisted this information. You need to understand first that those people can adopt children, but priority will be the married heterosexual couple.
Question: Why did you decide to resign from the EUD? How do you feel about it?
GT: On social media, Facebook, Twitter, the LGBTQ community have voiced out that they do not agree with my political work and said it conflicts with the EUD principles. That my vote does not align with EUD’s principle. They said it would be best for the EUD Vice President to resign. Also, EUD members of the deaf association from 4 countries emailed to have the EUD Vice President resign. They pushed for this and the EUD board have thought over it and asked me to resign. I thought about it. I looked at EUD their values and agreed to resign. However, do I fully agree? No. Why? The EUD general assembly, the delegates of the deaf associations from different countries, have the right to decide about the EUD board elections or to step down. That is the responsibility of the general assembly.
Question: Some critics say a deaf leader who wants to advance civil rights should also support gay rights, that the two cannot be separate. What do you think of that?
GT: The work of EUD is to fight for rights in the European Union. Who are EUD representing? The European Union deaf community. All the members in the European Union from different countries do not tolerate inequality or oppression. Same as here in Hungary. Regardless of race, religion, minority, language, age, man, woman, and others. All of us together know that oppression is not accepted. So, EUD follows EU’s approved principles. Since they follow the principles, it also says that all people have rights to the freedom of expressing their opinions and freedom to expressing their political opinion. With EUD, that was violated. EUD did not hear out my opinion. So it is better to resign. Related to LGBTQ, it is not a disability issue. It is a gender issue. The EUD general assembly voted me for specifically the Deaf community and to represent the disabled people (to EU) and our language. Not political work. The political work I do is for Hungarian people. They voted for me. My responsibility for the political work is for Hungary. My responsibility with EUD is the deaf community, the general assembly, and the Hungarian Deaf Association for what my vote represents.
Question: Do you want to add anything?
GT: I am sad to see this. EUD says it is important to include diversity. My other opinion is that I do not agree that resigning is the only solution without any discussion. Democracy is not a one sided view. Democracy has various types of views. People’s opinions should not influence the democratic process. My opinion, that is not a good way. For the future of our Deaf community, it is important that we can get together, engage in conversation, be creative, organize, etc. We need to discuss various things, what needs to be changed, how to push for rights – that needs to be the future of the Deaf community. It will be great for the Deaf community if more deaf people can be involved with their countries’ parliaments and become members. It is important. I hope there will be more deaf people involved and work with parliaments.
Callie: So, that’s his response. We see that it is his view that deaf/disability issues are separate from LGBTQ+ issues as he associates the latter with gender. He views them separately.
So, you all now know what happened in Europe. What do you think?
https://www.eud.eu/about-us/eud-board/dr-gergely-tapolczai/
https://www.reuters.com/article/hungary-lgbt/hungarys-parliament-passes-law-effectively-banning-same-sex-adoption-idUSS8N2HV03D
https://twitter.com/EUD_Brussels/status/1357707119940796418?s=20
https://twitter.com/emilo_chr/status/1359807758665715713?s=20
https://twitter.com/dennis_hgv/status/1357715490773340163?s=20