“An attempt to intimidate those who dare to think differently than the mainstream, which promotes liberal, gender-neutral ideas.” This is how the initiators of a petition reacted to the fact that a renowned psychologist who dared to speak out against gender ideology and children’s sensitisation has become the target of a witch-hunt. Many have signd the petition in support of the psychologist.
An LGBTQ children’s book entitled Fairyland is for All (Meseorszag mindenkie) has stirred quite an outrage in Hungary, and many have protested against its themes targeting children.
Renowned Hungarian clinical psychologist Emoke Bagdy also talked about the book to daily Magyar Nemzet, but her expert opinion has triggered a witch hunt by a certain group of expert psychologists, who issued a position, taking a stand against their acclaimed colleague.
Speaking about the book, Ms Bagdy explained the dangers of early sensitisation. She pointed out that children aged between 3-5 tend to receive most of the stimuli through which they develop their gender identity. Emoke Bagdy also drew attention to the fact that fairy tales are of particular importance because they can be used to convey messages that the child receives without criticism.
According to the clinical psychologist, it is important that parents and educators socialise children in the direction of clarity, and not deviance. She added that children need to be educated for tolerance, but this should not be done in preschool, as each age has its own educational role.
Since then, the book’s editor has also admitted that the book is not intended for preschool children. Boldizsar Nagy said they first wanted the tales to be for 5-8 year old children, but then as the texts were coming in, they felt that some of the tales were written for 9-10 year olds. The editor added they eventually decided not to indicate which age group each story was intended for, leaving this choice to the parents.
Emoke Bagdy’s opinion was denounced by many of her fellow psychologists who issued a statement, stressing that they distance themselves from “any statement made by any psychologist, including Emoke Bagdy, that contains information which is professionally unfounded and contrary to the current position of science, and has the expected impact of increasing hatred and social exclusion.”
Emoke Bagdy responded to the accusations in an opinion piece published by the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet. In her article, she rejected that her statement is professionally and scientifically unfounded and suitable to incite hatred, pointing out that she had formulated her opinion about the LMBTQ fairy tales in the light of scientific facts. Drawing on additional scientific arguments, Emoke Bagdy went on to illustrate why children’s early sensitisation gives reason for concern.
Using one of her key arguments, the psychologist also threw her weight behind the heterosexual majority, asking those who call for tolerance to be equally tolerant towards heterosexuals.
Emoke Bagdy is not alone as a petition has been launched in her support. It states that the attack against the psychologist is, in fact, “an attempt to intimidate those who take the courage to think differently from the mainstream which promotes liberal, gender-neutral ideas”. The writers of the petition also highlight that Emoke Bagdy did not speak out against the LGBTQ storybook. Instead, based on scientific facts, she intended to draw attention to the risks of children’s early sensitisation through fairy tales.
The petition stresses that “opinion dictators” whose definition of a professional is someone with a libertarian mindset must be prevented from hunting down the psychologist and forcing her to retreat.
