viktor orban

Orbán's Defeat Deals Major Blow to Global Anti-Gender Movement

Annie Wilkinson — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 01:02:46 EDT

Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister who spent 16 years building one of the world’s most studied models of authoritarian rule, lost power at the ballot box this week. His defeat and the collapse of his Christian nationalist Fidesz Party…

2023 CPAC Lived Down to Expectations, But Don't Buy the Narrative: The GOP is Not as Divided as You Might Think

Annika Brockschmidt — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 03:43:20 EST

Considering that CPAC is the largest conservative conference in the US, the line-up of their 2023 conference was distinctly unimpressive, with some notable names absent from the list of speakers . While Mitch McConnell hasn’t been invited to CPAC in…

The 'Dreher Affair' Highlights the Right's International Networks

Annika Brockschmidt — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 03:30:09 EST

Right-wing Christian blogger and media figure Rod Dreher has moved to Hungary, where he continues to admire Viktor Orbán , the country’s authoritarian prime minister whom he’s called “one of the most extraordinary world leaders of our time.” Dreher isn’t…

Who Could Possibly Take Issue With 'Human Dignity'? Beware of Trojan Horses

Peter Schwartz — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 02:48:58 EST

Upon the recent death of the conservative British historian Paul Johnson, the right-wing journal Public Discourse praised Johnson as the “historian of human dignity.” Another recent piece in the Washington Post by Justin Dyer—executive director of the conservative Civitas Institute…

Broken Courts, Big Lies and Genocide Rehearsal: A Review of 2022—And What We Can Expect From 2023

Annika Brockschmidt — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 12:59:50 EST

As 2022 draws to a close, amongst the last-minute hustle before the New Year, there’s a moment for reflection. In my line of work this isn’t necessarily a joyful task, but it is an essential one—especially for what it can…

Call it 'Christian Globalism': A Reporter's Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation, Part III

Frederick Clarkson, André Gagné — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 03:36:57 EST

This is the final installment of a three-part series. Read Part I: Christian Right Denialism is More Dangerous Than Ever: A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation & Part II: When it Comes to Societal Dominion, the Details Matter…

A Tale of Two Fascisms: 'Douchey' JD Vance vs. 'Creepy' Blake Masters

Annika Brockschmidt — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 09:49:37 EST

Peter Thiel’s bid to win two seats in Congress didn’t quite succeed. One of his protégées, J.D. Vance , won his race in Ohio after trailing his Democratic opponent for weeks, while the other, Blake Masters, lost his Arizona senate…

The Quiet Part is Very Much Out Loud: Conservative Publication Calls For Embrace of Totalitarianism

Annika Brockschmidt — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 04:28:33 EST

White Christian nationalism has been shown by researchers to be strongly connected to authoritarianism and anti-democratic sentiment. “White Christian nationalism is not just in the people who stormed the Capitol but it’s powerfully associated and a leading predictor of whether…

Putin's Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There's Reason to Believe it'll Go Mainstream

Thomas Lecaque — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 05:30:57 EDT

It starts with a tweet: https://twitter.com/realRickWiles/status/1585375961033605120?s=20&t=DZQ… And it is, of course, not simply that. Shortly before, in support of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin appointing a “chief exorcist” against Satanism, he said : “Can you think of anybody, in the…

White Nationalist Ideology Shines Through at Elite MAGA Conference: Inside NatCon Part II

Ben Lorber — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 05:23:09 EDT

Below is the second of a two-part report on the third National Conservatism Conference that took place in Miami, FL from September 11 - September 13, 2022. Read Part I here . “Exercise your dominion, O Lord, over this nation”…

The Far-Right Embrace of the Knights Templar isn't Just About Faith, Tradition or History — It's About Hate

Thomas Lecaque — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 03:36:35 EDT

In 1302, the island of Arwad, off the coast of Syria, fell to Mamluk forces. The Templar garrison died in the assault. The Templar had lost their last stronghold in the Holy Land, and while the other major military orders…

Knighting Viktor Orbán for 'Defending Christianity,' Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Demonstrates That 'Culture War' is the Only Theology That Matters to the Global Right

Katherine Kelaidis — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 04:34:08 EDT

On September 5, Patriarch Porfiry of Belgrade, the leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, awarded the highest degree of the Order of Saint Sava (the Patriarchate’s highest chivalric order) to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán . According to a statement…

Crossing the Rubicon? Mar-a-Lago Raid Enflames Right Wing Fantasies of Christian Caesarism

Annika Brockschmidt, Thomas Lecaque — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 05:48:29 EDT

A Roman, a Confederate, and a Nazi walk into a political discourse… Sorry, there’s no punchline. This is just how the online conservative pundit machine is dealing with the FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago —comparing it to the…

Orthodox Church's Authoritarian Anti-LGBTQ Statement Poses Serious Threat to Academic Freedom

Sarah Riccardi-Swartz — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 04:36:54 EDT

As discussed earlier this week on RD , the Orthodox Church in America recently released an encyclical that, on the surface at least, recapitulates the long-held doctrines of the OCA concerning same-sex marriage and gay rights, reinforcing heterosexual hegemony as…

With This Largely Overlooked Shakeup is the Russian Orthodox Church Looking to Westernize? Yes and No

Katherine Kelaidis — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 04:06:17 EDT

A major shakeup at the highest levels in the Russian Orthodox Church is offering new insight into the Moscow-based church’s internal struggles and strategic position towards the West — and oddly no one in the West seems to care. Metropolitan…

The Most Forgotten Queer Folks in the US are Fighting Back Against a Powerful — and Publicly Funded — Group That Discriminates With Impunity

Chrissy Stroop — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 01:51:59 EDT

“How do we get people to view the CCCU as an extremist organization, the same way they view ADF?” It’s a great question that Paul Southwick, a gay attorney and the director of the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP), put…

Kirill's Sermon May Be Bad Preaching and Even Worse Theology — But it's a Top-Notch Rejection of Liberal Democracy

Daniel Schultz — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 04:45:53 EST

Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave a sermon on forgiveness this past Sunday at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. It was a doozy , to use the vernacular. Many will rightly zero in…

Battle of Antisemitism Definitions is Actually a Proxy War For Criticism of Israel

Joshua Shanes — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 02:28:50 EDT

Last month, a global consortium of leading scholars released the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), the product of a year-long labor to produce a new working definition of antisemitism that builds upon the widely-cited, but nearly as widely critiqued and…

Kuwait "Morals Committee" Announced Deportation of 76 Gay Men; and More in Global LGBT Recap

Peter Montgomery — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 12:45:26 EDT

Brian Brown, president of the International Organization for the Family, the parent organization to the World Congress of Families, bragged in a fundraising email about the organization working with the government of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban and praising the campaign…

Burma's Spirit Festival, and More in This Week's Global LGBT Roundup

Peter Montgomery — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 05:16:04 EDT

The Washington Blade spoke to bisexual activists in a dozen countries and reported on the global movement in a two-part series. Earlier this month, the intensely anti-gay leader of the U.S.-based Mass Resistance, Brian Camenker, traveled to the U.K. to…

World Congress of Families Draws Anti-LGBT Activists to Budapest; More in Global LGBT Recap

Peter Montgomery — Mon, 29 May 2017 07:00:59 EDT

Activists from around the world celebrated the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). The Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality compiled 14 IDAHOT projects from the Middle East and North Africa region. The World Congress of Families, a global…

Religious Traditionalists Resist Marriage Equality, Artist Questions What Is "Un-African" & More in This Global LGBT Recap

Peter Montgomery — Sun, 12 Mar 2017 10:12:47 EDT

ILGA notes that some women in more than 50 countries went on strike on Wednesday’s International Women’s Day: “We demand that our lives and labour be treated with dignity for they form the basis of this society,” the platform of…

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Orlando Massacre; Legal Gray Area in Jordan Amid Rising Fundamentalism; Push and Pull on LGBT Human Rights at UN; Global LGBT Recap

Peter Montgomery — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 06:46:11 EDT

Organizers of last month’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia have published their report on this year’s celebrations around the world. ISIS claims responsibility in Orlando mass murder The American-born man who massacred dozens of people at a gay…

This Halloween, Think of Islam as a Religion of Pieces. Reese’s Pieces.

Haroon Moghul — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 01:25:28 EDT

Will they have gluten-free treats? Is white chocolate structurally racist? Are brown M&M’s offensive? Isn’t Halloween a pagan occasion? Why does that costume look pornographic? These weren’t big questions when I was growing up. They weren’t even questions, actually. I…

Pope's US Visit Provokes Intense Attention; New Vatican Book on Man-Woman Complementarity & New Int'l Report on Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality; Global LGBT Recap

Peter Montgomery — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 11:33:22 EDT

The United Kingdom’s Stonewall has published “Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality,” a booklet that tells the stories of 20 Christians from 15 countries on six continents, with a foreward by Bishop Christopher Senyonjo of Uganda. The report is also…