Judit Takacs @ UvA

Sexualities, 2017

Based on archive research and interviews with activists who were affiliated with the early homosexual subculture in Budapest, this article traces the transformation of a secretive and socially invisible subculture (that was based mainly on sexual exchange between men) to the establishment of the first formal homosexual organization and the emerging homosexual movement at the end of the 1980s. The article illustrates how the emergence of HIV/AIDS worked as a catalyst in transforming the Hungarian gay subculture into a more organized homosexual movement. Rather than state-socialism being in crisis, it was a crisis of public health and perceived danger to the members of the community that instigated the creation of the first formal homosexual organization.

In: Régis Schlagdenhauffen (ed.) Queer in Europe during the Second World War. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. ISBN 978-92-871-8464-1, 2018

Takács J (2018) Homosexuals and the labour service system in Horthy’s Hungary. 79-87. In: Régis Schlagdenhauffen (ed.) Queer in Europe during the Second World War. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. ISBN 978-92-871-8464-1 https://book.coe.int/eur/en/human-rights-and-democracy/7678-queer-in-europe-during-the-second-world-war.html

2007

Intersections.EEJSP 5(1): 71-99., 2019

This study examines social attitudes towards homosexuality in two Central-Eastern European neighbouring countries-Romania and Hungary-with many common points, but that do differ in their religious traditions. Our main research question is whether the main religious denomination can influence social attitudes towards homosexuality, after controlling for all the important individual level variables (gender, age, education, type of settlement, family status, employment background, and attitudes related to family and gender norms). Among the examined variables we especially focus on the religious ones since the dominant denominations are different in these otherwise similar societies. The empirical base of our study comprises two longitudinal databases: the European Social Survey (ESS) and the European Values Study (EVS). We use data from two ESS rounds (of 2006 and 2008) and three EVS rounds (of 1990, 1999 and 2008). Since Romania participated only in the 3rd and the 4th rounds of the ESS (in 2006 and 2008), the Romanian results from 2008 are the most recent ones. We apply descriptive statistics and regression models. Our main conclusion is that belonging to the Orthodox Church had a more negative effect on social attitudes towards homosexuality than belonging to the Catholic Church (as previous studies have also found).

STERILE AND ISOLATED? AN ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY IN HUNGARY AND POLAND, 2015

CONFRONTING HOMOPHOBIA IN EUROPE

Homophobia exists in many different forms across Europe. Member States offer uneven levels of legal protection for lesbian and gay rights; at the same time the social meanings and practices relating to homosexuality are culturally distinct and intersect in complex ways with gender, class and ethnicity in different national contexts.

Confronting Homophobia in Europe, 2012

Homophobia exists in many different forms across Europe. Member States offer uneven levels of legal protection for lesbian and gay rights; at the same time the social meanings and practices relating to homosexuality are culturally distinct and intersect in complex ways with gender, class and ethnicity in different national contexts.

Confronting Homophobia in Europe: Social and Legal Perspectives, 2012

Homophobia exists in many different forms across Europe. Member States offer uneven levels of legal protection for lesbian and gay rights; at the same time the social meanings and practices relating to homosexuality are culturally distinct and intersect in complex ways with gender, class and ethnicity in different national contexts.

2015

This report examines two types of homophobia (and genderphobia) indicators: policies and attitudes that can together provide an indication of the respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer (LGBTQ+) people’s rights in the European Union. The first part of the report presents an overview of policy developments in areas where the European Union has competence to act regarding LGBTQ rights as well as the advancement of equal treatment policies since establishing the notion that human rights and fundamental freedoms are founding principles of the EU (in the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997). In the second part of the report comparative empirical evidence illustrates different levels of social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in Europe on the basis of quantitative data collected in the European Values Study, European Social Survey, International Social Survey Programme, Eurobarometer and the Fundamental Rights Agency’s EU LGBT surveys. The report ends with conclusions and recommendations for policy-makers at the EU and the national levels, pointing out that LGBTQ+ rights must be kept on the EU agenda by initiating and re-initiating debates on unresolved issues, such as the proposed horizontal Anti-Discrimination Directive or the mutual recognition of the effects of civil status documents, and by producing good quality empirical data on the experiences of and the attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in the EU.

Aspasia, 2015

The article explores the personal narratives of middle-aged and elderly Hungarian lesbian women based on oral history interviews. The stories open a window into the Kádár era from a special perspective, allowing us to get a glimpse into the women's self-recognition and coming out process; their different (sexual, professional or maternal) identities, relationships, informal social scenes, and communities; their thinking about gender roles, as well as the available representations of lesbians over the decades. The women also discuss the freedom and greater visibility—as complex as it was—that came after the democratic transition. The article contributes more detailed knowledge about the situation of LGBT people in the region during the state socialist period and around the 1989 regime change.