On Dec. 15 the Hungarian Parliament passed a constitutional amendment banning adoption of children by same-sex couples. The government-sponsored Ninth Amendment declares, succinctly and clearly, that a child’s parents are “the mother, a woman, and the father, a man.” It defines family as “based on marriage and the parent-child relation” and forbids homosexual propaganda directed at minors. The gender of a child is determined at birth and cannot be changed later in official documents. The amendment also reinforces the independence of “public foundations that carry out public tasks,” such as church-affiliated schools, from the government.

The amendment passed overwhelmingly, 134 to 45 with five abstentions. The explanatory text stated that “western ideology is changing in a way that necessitates guaranteeing the child’s right to self-identity in line with their gender at birth, in order to protect the child from mental or biological intervention affecting its physical and mental wellbeing.” Furthermore, raising children according to Hungary’s “constitutional identity and Christian culture” will give future generations “the chance to learn about Hungarian identity and to protect [the country’s] sovereignty as well as the national role of Christianity.”

The howls of rage from the Gutmensch/bien pensant media and political establishment came swiftly and predictably. “This is a dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights,” said David Vig, director of Amnesty Hungary. “These discriminatory, homophobic and transphobic new laws are just the latest attack on LGBTQ people by Hungarian authorities.”

We are deeply concerned for the health and safety of trans children and adults in Hungary in such a hostile climate,” Masen Davis, executive director at Transgender Europe added.

Katrin Hugendubel, described as “advocacy director at international gay rights group ILGA,” told NBC that the changes meant “LGBTI children will be forced to grow up in an environment which restricts them from being able to express their identities.”

“As could be expected, the political left did not support any of the government proposals,”  Istvan Holik, spokesman for the ruling Fidesz party, said after the vote. “They made it clear they had no intention whatsoever of defending Europe’s Christian culture, the rights of our children and traditional family values. To the left, George Soros and migrants are worth a lot more that their homeland or the family.”

Particularly comical was the claim by the mainstream media that “Hungary Amends Constitution to Redefine Family.” It suggests that the family is “defined” by Messrs. Vig, Davis, and their ilk, and “redefined” by the assertion that it is based on marriage and the parent-child relation, composed of a child, a female mother, and a male father.

It is an even bet that Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán won’t give a hoot. He has become an open culture-warrior since winning his third landslide victory in a row in 2018. A year earlier he invited the U.S.-based International Organization for the Family (IOF)—described by the left as an “anti-LGBT hate group”—to hold its annual gathering in Budapest.

On many occasions Orbán has attacked the European Union (EU) for its family and immigration policies which are informed by a “relativizing liberal ideology that’s an insult to families.” In his speech for the IOF “Building Family-Friendly Nation” conference in Budapest he declared that Europe is “old, rich and weak,” while most migrants come from regions which are “young, poor and strong.” He sees demographic recovery and rising birth rates as integral to Europe’s survival in the ongoing clash of civilizations.

In 2016 I described Orbán as Europe’s register-in-chief to the mandatory migrant quotas which Brussels tried to impose on EU member countries. “Europe’s future is endangered primarily not by those who want to come here,” he said, “but by those political, economic and intellectual leaders who are trying to transform Europe in opposition to the European people.” Migration can be stopped; “there will be no lawless districts in Hungarian cities, no riots, no refugee camps set on fire, and no gangs will hunt for our wives and daughters.”

In other words, Viktor Orbán is eminently suitable to become our regular columnist, if and when he decides to quit politics. For the sake of Hungary, Europe, and the cause of sanity and decency everywhere, let us hope that will not happen any time soon.