Queer Budapest, 18731961 by Anita Kurimay;

Author:Anita Kurimay; [Kurimay, Anita]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS000000 History / General
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2020-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

1919

7

1

1920

10

*

1921

16

1

1922

25

3

1923

35

6

1924

61

5

1925

48

6

1926

27

10

1927

41

13

1928

40

9

1929

37

8

1930

*

7

1931

9

5

1932

33

5

1933

*

9

1934

*

7

1935

32

6

1936

35

8

1937

24

7

1938

32

8

1939

3040

6

1940

40

6

1941

62

3

1942

56

2

1943

*

7

1944

*

1

1945

5

2

* Index volumes are missing or incomplete.

When and how were people actually prosecuted in the courts for “unnatural fornication”? The Criminal District Courts tended to pursue the charges of homosexuality on the recommendations of the public prosecution office.64 In general, men were apprehended by the “homosexual squad” in public venues, lavatories, city parks, and public baths, where men would engage in what were considered to be “unnatural” acts, ranging from having sex with another man to the “inappropriate” touching of another man’s genitals. Similar to most countries that criminalized male homosexuality, different Hungarian courts and legal scholars had varying understandings of how “unnatural fornication” should be defined.65 Nevertheless, considering that, in most cases, throughout the entire interwar period, there were no arguments between the judges, the defense, and the public prosecutors about the parameters of “unnatural fornication,” it is likely that there was a tacit understanding within the judicial system about what actions would fulfill the conditions of “unnatural fornication.” This is supported by the fact that, between 1918 and 1940, those accused of “unnatural fornication” rarely contested the charges on the basis of “not meeting the criteria of Paragraph 241.” It seems highly likely that the police only filed charges against those men who had incontestably committed acts of “unnatural fornication.”66

In the great majority of cases during this period, charges were made against working-class men and men with low social and economic status. Overwhelmingly, these men were born outside of Budapest, mainly in rural areas and in small towns. They had all moved to the capital for work. Almost all of them performed some form of manual labor.67 Not surprisingly, men with the means to conduct their sexual encounters in private were greatly underrepresented. In terms of marital status, about 80 percent (or four out of five men) were unmarried.68 Most men were Roman Catholic, as were most of the Hungarian countryside. Along with Catholics, Jewish men were slightly overrepresented among the accused.69 The ages of the men varied between seventeen and the mid-sixties, with the majority being in their twenties and thirties.70 In sum, most men who were accused of homosexuality between 1918 and 1940 were of rural origin and, similar to their international counterparts, in their twenties and thirties, working class, and unmarried. As such, the nature of the prosecution of queer men in Budapest highlights a transnational urban pattern during the interwar era, where young working-class men were disproportionately overrepresented in cases with charges of homosexuality.71

During the 1920s the charges for consensual public homosexual acts ranged from a financial penalty to a few weeks in the lightest form of confinement. Considering that according to the penal code if the accused were found guilty of “unnatural fornication,” the punishment was up to one year, it is noteworthy that the courts rarely assigned a sentence of more than ten days or more than a few weeks for consensual sex.72 In fact, if men had no prior criminal history, in the majority of cases, the courts often suspended the punishment.

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