Hungary’s parliament votes on Tuesday on removing restrictions targeting the LGBTQ+ community that were written into the country’s 2021 “child protection” law under former nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It is the first significant revision of these restrictions since pro-European Prime Minister Péter Magyar came to power, AFP reports.
What the bill changes
The new bill lifts the bans on the “portrayal” or “promotion” of diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity in content aimed at children.
The legal framework will instead focus solely on protecting minors from material that could “seriously harm their physical, mental, emotional or moral development”.
Political background
Mr Magyar won a broad majority in the April elections, ending Mr Orbán’s 16 years in power. During that period, Hungary had adopted one of the strictest frameworks in Europe regarding LGBTQ+ rights.
Reaction from rights groups
“The fact that these restrictions are being lifted is undoubtedly an important and positive step forward,” said Tamás Dombos of the rights advocacy organisation Háttér Society.
Magyar’s approach
Although the Hungarian prime minister did not address LGBTQ+ rights during his election campaign, he has since adopted a friendlier stance, signalling that he intends to revisit several Orbán-era policies.
However, he does not present this vote as a restoration of rights. Instead, he describes it as strengthening child protection rules “regardless of sexual orientation”.
Parliamentary arithmetic
Mr Orbán’s Fidesz party is expected to vote against the amendment, accusing the government of “weakening” the original law by yielding to pressure from the European Union.
The governing Tisza party, however, holds a comfortable two-thirds majority, allowing it to pass the bill without opposition support.
Source: AFP
