Over the past years, the situation for LGBTQ individuals in many EU countries has improved, even if often only haltingly. But Hungary is another story. There, homophobia and transphobia have become not only staples of government policy but also national ideology. Since the end of 2020, the country’s constitution has contained indirectly homophobic passages in addition to the following sentence: “The mother is a woman, the father is a man.” It is also all but illegal for gay couples to adopt children. Ahead of a referendum dealing with anti-LGBT topics, the government put up posters saying ‘Protect our children!’ Moreover, since summer 2021, representing or promoting homosexuality and gender reassignment surgery to or in the presence of people 18 years of age or younger has been criminalized. Critics say the law also equates pedophilia with homosexuality and transgender identities. DW interviewed queer Hungarians who felt suffocated by Victor Orban’s government policies and emigrated to Berlin.