The change to the previous law repeals restrictions on the “portrayal or promotion” of sexual and gender diversity in content, replacing them with a broader standard against material that could seriously harm a child’s development. LGBTQ advocates have welcomed the vote, while warning that major barriers to equality remain.
THIS ARTICLE AT A GLANCE
- Hungary’s scraps anti-LGBTQ+ provisions from its Child Protection Law.
- The original law banned the “portrayal or promotion” of homosexuality or transgenderism.
- The law no longer targets sexual or gender diversity.
- PM Péter Magyar’s Tisza supported the changes.
- The Christian Democrats opposed the changes.
- Advocates welcomed the vote but said many anti-LGBTQ+ laws remain.
- The EU agreed to release €4.2 billion in frozen funding to Hungary.
Hungary’s parliament has voted to scrap key anti-LGBTQ measures introduced under former prime minister Viktor Orbán, in the first significant reversal of restrictions targeting LGBTQ people since Péter Magyar’s government took office.
Lawmakers approved amendments to Hungary’s 2021 Child Protection Law by a vote of 139 to 51. The original law banned the “portrayal or promotion of homosexuality or transgenderism” in content accessible to minors, affecting schools, media and other areas of public life,
The amended law removes those provisions. It retains protections for under-18s from sexually explicit or violent material, but no longer singles out sexual or gender diversity. Instead, it aims to protect children from content that could “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional or moral development”.
“We are very happy that this got adopted,” Tamás Dombos of Hungarian civil rights group the Háttér Society told news outlets. “We’ve been fighting this so-called child protection law for five years.”
Magyar’s governing Tisza party, which holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority, passed the vote. Fidesz, Orbán’s party, and its ally the Christian Democrats voted against the amendments.
Hungary’s 2021 legislation was presented by Orbán’s Fidesz government as child protection. In practice, it restricted age-appropriate discussion of LGBTQ lives in schools and media, and influenced laws covering education and the right to assemble.
Critics said the law stigmatised gay and transgender people by associating them with harm to children. In April, the European Court of Justice ruled that the restrictions breached EU treaties.
The reversal comes after Orbán lost April’s election, ending 16 years in power. Prime Minister Péter Magyar has pledged to dismantle parts of the previous government’s legacy, although he has avoided presenting himself as a champion of full LGBTQ equality. bbc
“As prime minister, it’s my duty to represent all Hungarians, and we have sensitive issues, such as the situation of sexual minorities,” Magyar said in an interview with Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat.
LGBTQ and human rights groups welcomed the vote but stressed that discrimination remains embedded in Hungarian law. Restrictions on legal gender recognition for transgender people and adoption by same-sex couples remain in place, as do provisions that have been used to restrict Pride events.
Human Rights Watch also noted that the amendments leave discriminatory language in Hungary’s constitution and restrictions on freedom of assembly untouched.
Dombos said the change marked a major improvement on the Orbán years, when LGBTQ Hungarians felt continually targeted. But he said the community was still seeking full recognition of same-sex marriage, adoption rights for same-sex couples and the restoration of transgender people’s right to change their names on official documents.
“We are still knocking on a closed door,” Dombos told the BBC, “but at least they are listening on the other side.”
Shortly after the vote, the European Union agreed to release €4.2 billion in previously frozen funding to Hungary. The European Commission had said the Magyar government had addressed several rule-of-law breaches affecting the EU budget.
