In February 1983, at the request of the lesbian group Homosexuelle Initiative Wien, Andrzej Selerowicz, president of the Eastern European Information Pool (founded by ILGA in 1981 and active until 1996) interviewed Polish actress Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak, the lead actress in Károly Makk's film Egymásra nézve (Another Way). The interview was published in the EEIP's 1983 report (https://queerstoria.pl/zbiory/report-of-the-eastern-europe-information-pool-july-1983), you can read it below. With this, we remember the actress who passed away on April 15, 2025, at the age of 74.

Labrisz has been included in this year’s MagNet Bank Community Donation Program (KAP), through which the bank’s clients can support us with a portion of the bank’s profits. We thank MagNet for this opportunity! If you also use MagNet, we would be grateful if you take advantage of this way to support us. You can find more information about the program here.

We would like to bring to your attention Labrisz' upcoming community short film "The Rebellion of the Lesbian Jacobins". This absurd, historical short film is about Jacobin women in Somogy who organise their lives and communities around the ideals of the French Revolution. Their sense of freedom, equality and sisterhood is shaped by the arrival of the Emperor, who looks eerily like Trump. The ruler would arbitrarily take their land, tax them, and imprison dissenters. The Jacobins of Somogy are resisting, and their message includes the right to unite and to love freely. The story of our community short film is played by members and friends of our association, only the film crew is made up of professionals. The joy of making a film together, the humour and the togetherness gave us all a positive charge and we hope we can give this energy to the viewers. The therapy of art is good for everyone. The sense of liberation and exhilaration, the awareness of self-organisation and resistance are much needed in these times, all over the world. The film has been shot and we are now in post-production.

Hello, Everyone! My name is Dorottya Rédai, I work for Labrisz Lesbian Association and I'm the leader of the project A Fairytale for Everyone. First of all, on behalf of LGBTQIA organisations, I would like to thank you for standing up for LGBTQIA people. Thank you for protesting against the ban on the Pride. Thank you for standing with us for years when the regime attacks us. Freedom of speech must be exercised, even when the government won’t listen to us, or when the police try to control who can hear our voices. Banning the Pride is a gross restriction on the fundamental right to free assembly. Therefore, this law amendment goes beyond the Pride. However, at the same time, it is very much about keeping LGBTQIA people out of public sight. All authoritarian regimes operate on the principle of ‘divide and rule’. Every such system picks vulnerable minority groups against whom the majority is agitated. Since the Fidesz-KDNP takeover in 2010, the systematic discrimination and exclusion of LGBTQIA people is not a rubber bullet, not a distraction from the more important issues, but a solid pillar of the system.

Dear friends, allies, and everyone who believes in equality! We have heard too often that change will come. That one day we will reach a place where everyone counts equally. That one day women’s rights will not be secondary, LGBTQ people will not be scapegoats, and social justice will not be just a campaign slogan. But we know that change does not come by itself. It is not enough to see new faces in politics if the system remains the same.

Dear Alice Weidel, You are visiting Budapest on 11-12 February to meet Viktor Orbán. Your party, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is one of Europe's extreme right-wing parties, which is rejected even by the majority of conservative political forces. The leading politicians of the AfD use national socialist rhetoric, relativise the Holocaust and represent a world in which human rights and social diversity do not exist. The AfD would expel from Germany people fleeing war, natural disasters, poverty and authoritarian regimes. The AfD rejects rainbow families, supports Putin and would have Germany exit the European Union. You are the president of this party. Meanwhile, you are openly lesbian, your partner comes from an immigrant background and the two of you are raising two children....

Great news: The trailer of our film The Second Golden Age – Challenges of Love, edited by Mária Takács, won the Golden Blende Audience Award! The creative director of the editing was Magdi Timár. Congratulations and thank you!

Our lovely exhibition program guide booklet and the 15. LIFT programme booklet are out now (the graphics are the work of Ádám András Kanicsár, Márton Petrekovits and Eszter Lisztes), browse through them and come to the exhibition (until 24 Nov at 2B Gallery, Ráday u. 47.) and the LIFT Festival (23-24 Nov, Itt és Most Community Space, Ráday u. 18.)!

Opening speech for the exhibition "Labrisz 25 – Lesbian herstory in Hungary" delivered on 9 November 2024 at 2B Gallery. (HUN)

The second season of the romantic human rights web series The Second Golden Age is available on Labrisz' Youtube channel:

We are pleased to announce our NEW newsletter, in which we report on our previous month's activities, bring you programme recommendations, current and upcoming events! Stay tuned and subscribe here: https://tinyurl.com/za739env

In 1996, a few lesbian women decided to create a meeting place and representation (which had been almost absent until then) for lesbian and bisexual women in Hungary. They published an unofficial, photocopied magazine called Labrisz, which ran for four issues. The name was inspired by the Belgrade-based Labris, with which several people had friendly and romantic ties :-) The magazine was available through advertisements in the Mások magazine and the feminist magazine Nőszemély or through the Meleg Háttér LGBT hotline. We received many letters from all over the country. The editors (Bea Sándor and Judit Hatfaludi) organised discussions for readers – these became the monthly Labrisz evenings that are still running today, providing a safe space to share a wide range of issues affecting lesbian* women. In 1999, the activist-minded women who gathered at these nights founded the Labrisz Lesbian Association.

The new website of our book, A Fairytale for Everyone, is now up and running: meseorszagmindenkie.hu Through the website, you can order the book Fairyland for Everyone from the publisher first hand, without the foil. The website also features videos of well-known actors reading the stories of the book, such as Eszter Gangl's "Avarbarna" by Imre Csuja, Sára Harka's "Kincső and Karola" by Patrícia Kovács, Dóra Gimesi's "Giantkiller Margeret" by Kati Takács, and Kriszta Kasza's "Trivadar, the three-eared rabbit" by Dorottya Udvaros. The stories were accompanied by interactive quizzes for children. For teachers, we recommend the story maps and the activity plans for the stories.

We are proud to announce that one of our founding member and devoted activist have received the prestigious Emma Goldman Snowball Award for her crucial contribution in the past 25 years to human rights as a feminist in Hungary. The Award was issued by the FLAX Foundation on the 8 September 2023 in Vienna at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen( Institute forHuman Sciences). She had been nominated by the sociologist Dr Judit Takacs.

The book A Fairytale for Everyone has had a fantastic run, with eleven foreign editions published by spring 2023. Polish: Kraina basni jest dla wszystkich. Published by Krytyka Polityczna. Translators: Tomasz Benda, Anna Butrym, Ariana Fabiszewska, Łukas Feliksik, Łukas Frynia, Monika Jurczak, Irena Makarewicz, Michalina Oziembłowska, Kinga Piotrowiak-Junkiert, Karolina Wilamowska, Krzystof Wołosiuk, Karolina Wywrot...