THE LECTURE WAS POSTPONED TO OCTOBER. DER VORTRAG WURDE AUF OKTOBER VERSCHOBEN.

Like in other “iron-curtained” countries, queer life during state-socialism was not very well documented in Hungary – except perhaps by certain secret police files. The talk will focus on the practice of special state surveillance on homosexuality that seems to have subsisted after the “communist” takeover. In fact, compiling homosexual inventories to gain an overview of potential blackmail victims to be coerced into becoming police informants was part of regular police work in urban areas and especially in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary – according to documents found at the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security. It should also be noted that none of the Hungarian Penal Codes have ever included any direct reference to homosexuality: it was always certain forms and aspects of unnatural fornication that were criminalised, while the exact content of the term has never been clearly defined. Even though the general prosecution of unnatural fornication ceased in 1961, the Hungarian Penal Code openly discriminated between same-sex and different sex partners concerning the age of consent in a sexual relationship until 2002.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.