The Hungarian parliament has passed amendments to the adoption law and two additions to the constitution. The constitutional amendments are intended to consolidate the Orbán government’s conservative image of the family and further stigmatise transgender and intersex people in Hungary.

On 15 December, the Hungarian parliament pushed through an amendment to the Child Protection Act, under which only married couples can adopt children. Same-sex couples, single and unmarried persons are de facto excluded.

Two amendments to the constitution were also passed. The restatements provide that the “mother shall be a woman and the father a man” and that Hungary shall protect “the self-identity of children according to their sex at birth”. “Education”, it continues, “shall be in accordance with the values based on the identity and Christian culture of our homeland”.

Government wants to enshrine conservative image of family

The constitutional amendments are designed to consolidate the Orbán government’s conservative image of the family and further restrict the rights of queer people in the country.

Accordingly, Dávid Vig, director of Amnesty International in Hungary, sharply criticises the resolutions:

“This is a black day for the Hungarian LGBTQ community and for human rights. These discriminatory, homophobic and transphobic laws – waved through under the cloak of the COVID pandemic – represent only the latest attack on LGBTQ people by the Hungarian authorities.”

Vig, who himself is homosexual, says he now thinks twice about holding his friend’s hand in public because he is “receiving more and more discriminatory messages – including hate messages and death threats”.

EU should finally act

Terry Reintke, Vice-Chair of the Greens/EFA Group and Co-Chair of the LGBTI Intergroup in the European Parliament, calls on the European Commission and EU governments to finally address these issues and move forward with infringement proceedings against Hungary.

“The cancellation of Hungary’s hearing during German Presidency, originally scheduled for 8 December in the General Affairs Council, is a missed opportunity. It is now up to the incoming Portuguese Presidency to organise a hearing on Hungary as soon as possible. We cannot continue to accept the disenfranchisement of LGBTI people in Hungary.”

Please follow and like us: