In Hungary, the government has submitted a bill to the parliament to amend anti-LGBTQIA+ rules for minors that were introduced under former anti-LGBTQIA+ leader Viktor Orban.
This law was created in 2021 as an add-on to the country’s existing child protection regulations, banning the “promotion of homosexuality” to those under 18 years old. This was eventually used to ban LGBTQIA+ events like Pride.
The new bill aims to remove references in the 2021 legislation banning the “promotion” or “display” of homosexuality and gender transition to minors. Instead, it would simply refer to materials that can “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional or moral development”.
According to Hungary’s prime minister Peter Magyar, who ended Orban’s 16-year rule after winning the election last April, the rules would now apply “regardless of sexual orientation”, and this should bring the country in line with European Union (EU) regulations. “We take an uncompromisingly strict stance against media content accessible to minors that promotes sexual violence, manipulation and exploitation.”
Also last April, EU’s top tribunal, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), ruled that Turkey’s law violated “the very identity” of the bloc.
The current administration is also considering changing a 2020 law that restricted adoption to married couples, effectively banning same-sex couples from adopting.
