Labrisz Lesbian Association was called into life by the stronger need for an initiative which, apart from providing social space, reflects on the social position of lesbian and bisexual women in a more organized form. It was officially registered in 1999 with 17 members, but the core group of the organization had been facilitating meetings and discussions since 1996.
It started with a photocopied, samizdat newsletter edited by a few lesbians, who later organized meetings for their readers. These regular monthly meetings became regular discussion evenings under the name “Labrisz Evenings”, which were held for 10 years, on various topics. Some of the regular visitors of the Labrisz Evenings founded the organization.
In 2020 they published Meseország mindenkié (Fairyland is for Everyone, 2020), a volume of revised classic fairytales written by a dozen of young authors who reinterpreted classic Hungarian folk tales portraying the protagonists as belonging to “oppressed minorities”. The objective was to offer an alternative storybook portraying the heroes of traditional Hungarian folk and fairy tales as belonging to minorities such as lesbian or Roma. On the sleeve of the book it says: “This storybook should be in every child’s room, where understanding the multicoloured nature of the world is important, where there are no taboos surrounding the children, and a room where they can walk in knowing that through their children are not only able to influence the future, but the present as well.”
The launch of the book sparked a major controversy in Hungary after Dóra Dúró, vice-president of the far-right Our Homeland Movement, publicly tore up and shredded a copy of it.
