(iPoster) Business Responses to Orbán’s Anti-LGBTQ Laws: Cautious Voice and Internal Power

• In Event: Poster Session: Racial, Ethnic, Gender, LGBTQ+ Politics & Sexuality and Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Sexuality & Politics

Abstract

Can business help to defend citizens’ rights from retrenchment in an adverse and hostile environment? Are business representatives willing to stand up and use strategies of ‘loud voice’ against an authoritarian state with coercive power? How do LGBTQ friendly businesspeople respond to an navigate this space; what kind of politics do we observe in this realm? My paper draws on interviews to answer these questions and contribute to the literature by examining business opposition to anti-LGBTQ legislation in Hungary. I find that many companies are actively supporting LGBTQ people within the confines of their own companies. The subsidiaries of large multinational companies with branch operations in Hungary are much more engaged than domestic capitalists, but even large MNCs are afraid of the Orbán government. To the extent that there is loud voice, it takes place without directly criticizing the government or the anti-LGBTQ legislation. I argue that business support of LGBTQ people in Hungary is an example of the politics of careful / cautious voice and internal power. I illustrate these dynamics using more than thirty interviews with company representatives and with participants from the Budapest Pride March, the pro-LGBT Hatter Society, and the employer network/ initiative WeAreOpen.

Author

• Daniel Phillip Kinderman, University of Delaware