The Hungarian Government has put forward legislation that would undo an amendment to the country’s child protection laws that was used to outlaw LGBTQIA+ pride marches – and repealing a ban on gays and lesbians adopting will be next.
Hungary opted for a change of government in April this year, ending the sixteen-year reign of former prime minister Viktor Orban, which had been characterised by rolling back LGBTQIA+ rights and freedom of expression in the Central European nation.
Orban was replaced by centre-right Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar, who has pledged to rebuild Hungary’s relationships with the European Union and its allies after years of Orban’s cosying up to Russia and US President Donald Trump.
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Returning to European norms
Shortly after Magyar’s election, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that its laws banning so-called “LGBT propaganda” and its ban on public pride events were not only illegal, but a fundamental breach of EU values.
The bill put forward by Magyar’s government will remove specific language that singled out homosexuality and transgender issues from the legislation.
If passed, the amended law will simply refer to any material that can “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional or moral development” without singling out any particular groups.
Hungary’s ban on so-called “LGBT propaganda” had been used to justify bans on public gatherings by the LGBTQIA+ community such as pride marches.
Hungarians had already begun celebrating those events again this year following Orban’s defeat.
Adoption reform next
On Saturday, Magyar said that his government would next look at repealing a 2020 law that banned anyone but married couples from adopting in Hungary.
Hungary passed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2011 but has provided registered partnerships for same-sex couples since 2009.
However, as a European Union member state, Hungary is legally obliged to recognise same-sex marriages performed in other parts of the EU.
During Magyar’s victory speech in April, he said that Hungary had decided that it wants to be a nation where “no one is stigmatised for loving differently or in a different way than the majority.”
“Our homeland has decided and wants to live again. It wants to become a European country again.”
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