Hungary Removes Anti-LGBTQ Provisions From Orbán-Era Law
Lawmakers lifted restrictions on LGBTQ visibility, but rights advocates warn that other discriminatory provisions remain.
Hungarian lawmakers have voted to remove anti-LGBTQ provisions from a 2021 “child protection” law adopted under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
By a 139-51 margin, the Hungarian parliament passed a bill retaining protections against material that can “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional, or moral development.” But the amended law removes bans on the “portrayal” or “promotion” of sexual or gender diversity, according to Agence France-Presse. The term “promotion” was ill-defined and interpreted broadly under the Orbán regime.
The vote marks the first significant reversal of the Orbán regime’s efforts to crack down on LGBTQ visibility. Prime Minister Péter Magyar won a landslide victory in April, ending 16 years of rule by Orbán’s Fidesz party.
The right-wing party had sought to roll back rights for LGBTQ people, revoking legal recognition of transgender identity, banning same-sex marriage and adoption, and encouraging citizens to anonymously report same-sex couples raising children to law enforcement authorities.
Like their ideological counterparts in Russia, Orbán and Fidesz authorities also sought to incite animus against LGBTQ people by accusing them of “grooming” children and fostering anti-nationalist beliefs, even withdrawing from the Eurovision song contest for being too pro-LGBTQ.
Although the 2021 law was originally introduced with the stated aim of cracking down on pedophilia, Fidesz politicians went further, banning the “promotion” of homosexuality and gender transition to minors. Those anti-LGBTQ provisions were interpreted broadly, targeting businesses or advertisers that cater to LGBTQ audiences, news outlets reporting on the LGBTQ community, and school curricula or lessons — especially sex education — that merely acknowledge the existence of homosexuality or transgender people.
The law was amended in 2025 to serve as the basis for banning annual Pride marches in the country.
Magyar, a former Fidesz member, largely avoided addressing LGBTQ rights during his election campaign, although he has adopted a friendlier attitude toward LGBTQ people since being elected. He cast the amendments to the 2021 law as strengthening child protections “regardless of sexual orientation.”
Fidesz lawmakers voted against the amendment, accusing the government of “neutering” the law to curry favor with the European Union, which has long criticized anti-LGBTQ legislation pushed through by Orbán’s government. But the amendments passed easily, as the governing Tisza party holds a two-thirds majority in parliament.
Shortly after Magyar’s landslide win, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the 2021 law violated the EU’s core values of equality and respect for minority rights. The court found that the law was discriminatory and violated treaty provisions requiring EU member states to respect human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and human rights, including those of sexual and gender minorities.
The European Union praised the revised law as an “important signal of commitment for our common [EU] values.” In an unrelated move, it released 4.2 billion euros and lifted funding restrictions on Hungary after the Tisza-led government adopted stronger anti-corruption reforms.
However, Human Rights Watch warned last month that Tisza’s proposed legislation did not go far enough in removing other provisions used to prohibit Pride parades and other LGBTQ-related assemblies.
Tamas Dombos, of the Hatter Society rights group, told AFP that eliminating the anti-LGBTQ provisions represented an “important and positive step forward,” but warned that “there is still a lot to do.”
“Even if the government’s sole aim is to restore the legal status quo that existed before 2020, there are still a great many laws that would need to be amended,” Dombos said. “And we don’t know whether the government’s working on that.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.