Hungary’s new government has tabled a bill to amend the controversial anti-LGBT law from the previous administration led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The bill filed on Monday would strike passages from Hungary’s child protection law that prohibited the “promotion” and the “depiction” of homosexuality in films and on television for minors (TheColu.mn reported). Going forward, content that could “seriously impair” a child’s physical, mental, emotional, or moral development would be banned.
Under Orbán, Hungary had long restricted the rights of queer people. The 2021 amended Child Protection Act states that information about homosexuality or gender-affirming care should not be provided to children and adolescents under 18. The depiction of same-sex partnerships on television has been punishable since then. Bookstores are required to seal books with queer themes in plastic wrap; if the bookstore is near schools or churches, sales are entirely prohibited.
Law Violates EU Law
The Orbán government also used the strict provisions to ban Pride parades. In April, the European Court of Justice ruled that the law violates EU law (TheColu.mn reported).
Hungary’s new prime minister Péter Magyar said on Monday that his government would act “strictly” and “without compromise” against media content accessible to minors that “promote sexual violence, manipulation and exploitation.” The new guidelines, he argued, are “independent of sexual orientation” and thus in line with EU law.
Magyar’s conservative Tisza Party had won a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election in April, ousting the long-governing right-wing populists Orbán from power (TheColu.mn reported). Since then, Hungary’s LGBTQ community has hoped for the restoration of their rights — during the campaign Magyar avoided addressing queer rights. On Saturday Magyar already signaled that he would seek to amend a 2020 adoption law that excludes same-sex couples (TheColu.mn reported).
