Balázs Birtalan

Balázs Birtalan (October 12, 1969 – May 14, 2016) was a Hungarian author, poet, publicist, and psychotherapist, mostly known for his participation in the gay Christian movement in Hungary. He was the son of the poet Ferenc Birtalan.

His first poems were published at the age of ten; he has been publishing regularly since the age of 14. he was baptized as a Roman Catholic one week later.

In 1995 and 1996, he studied psychology at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He took an intermediate level language exam in English and an advanced level one in Esperanto. Between 1988 and 1998, he earned a living by selling books and CDs; between 1996 and 1997, he taught English. After 1998, he worked at a notary public's office, editing legal instruments. His online nicknames Feanor and Izmael refer to the two authors who significantly shaped his worldview, J. R. R. Tolkien and Daniel Quinn. His newer poems are: A Garland of Memories – A Crown of Sonnets from 1992 Poems, 1992–1996 Poems from 2005 on Artificial Flowers on the Altar of Symbolism (2009)

His collection of essays, Dried Plums at Sunset – Meme Stories was published in late 2008, edited from his blog posts of the preceding years. It addresses a wide range of themes, including biographical writings, sustainable development, compassionate communication, psychology, psychotherapy and hypnosis, Harry Potter, society and tolerance, church, its dogmas, and theology.

A complete edition of his blog posts was published posthumously in 2017, titled Without a Script, in 1,000 pages , with recommendation by the psychologist Tamás Vekerdy.

Gay activism Between 1995 and 2003, he took an active part in Christian gay activism, A documentary with the same title was made in 2003, centered around the author, directed by Bernadett Frivaldszky. He held several lectures in this topic at several conferences. Válaszd az életet! ("Choose Life!") is the shortened version of his book, reworked from a Protestant point of view. It was published in 2004.

Death Balázs Birtalan died on 14 May 2016 following a three-year long battle with cancer.