Title: Influence of the European Union on queer politics of Eastern Europe

Authors: Ankur Upreti

Addresses: School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Abstract: Eastern Europe's socio-cultural dynamics are defined by early Slavs and Greeks - cultures with evidence of accepted homosexuality and queerness. However, present-day Eastern Europe hosts an anti-queer environment. This paper focuses on finding the roots of this divergence by secondary data analysis of the available historical literature about the socio-cultural practices of the region. The paper also aims to find the influence of the politics of the European Union on the queer politics of the region by analysing particular socio-economic policies. The neo-functionalist theory of European integration talks about the spillover effect experienced across different socio - political-economic sectors. This paper examines how/whether this spillover 'controls' the 'queer politics' of Eastern European countries. The article has further taken a specific case of contemporary Hungarian 'queer politics' to analyse the contentions between the state and the union and to see the European Union's scope in redefining this politics.

Keywords: queer politics; Eastern Europe; homosexuality in Europe; European Union; Hungary; neo- functionalism; intergovernmentalism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2025.147396

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2025 Vol.12 No.3, pp.308 - 319

Received: 05 Dec 2023
Accepted: 15 Jan 2024
Published online: 15 Jul 2025 *

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