Hungary Repealed Law Banning LGBTQ "Promotion or mentioning Gay" in Schools, TV, Etc

Pecs, Hungary - Apr 11, 2025: Hungarian politician Peter Magyar leader of the Hungarian opposition and Tisza party giving a speech | Istvan Csak/Shutterstock 

Daniel Villarreal 

Hungarian lawmakers voted 139-51 on Tuesday to remove anti-LGBTQ+ provisions from a 2021 “child protection” law passed by the country’s former far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which banned the “portrayal” or “promotion” of sexual and gender diversity in schools and child-accessible TV content.

Orbán lost reelection last April to Péter Magyar. That same month, a European Union (EU) court ruled that Hungary must repeal its ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools and primetime television, as it violates EU laws and treaties. 

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Hungarian gay couple trying to adopt for 5 years finally making headway under new government  In June 2021, Hungary passed an “anti-pedophilia” law that limited public discussion of LGBTQ+ lives and identities, banned media and schools from discussing LGBTQ+ identities, and required sex education workers to register with the government to prevent them from promoting “representation of specific sexual orientations.” 

The law, which has been compared to Russia’s ban on “homosexual propaganda,” was widely condemned by the European Parliament. The law was also amended last year to justify a nationwide ban on Pride parades, Adelaide Now reported; though people marched anyway, with multiple people facing trial for organizing them in defiance of the ban. 

The new law from the Hungarian legislature will simply seek to protect people under the age of 18 from material that can “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional, or moral development.” The new law will remove all mentions of regarding the portrayal and promotion of sexual and gender diversity.

Tamas Dombos from the Hatter Society rights group — a legal advocacy group for victims of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, harassment, and violence — praised the court ruling, but told the aforementioned publication, “There is still a lot to do.” “Even if the government’s sole aim is to restore the legal status quo that existed before 2020, there are still a great many laws that would need to be amended… and we don’t know whether the government’s working on that,” Dombos said.

During Orbán’s tenure, Hungary also passed legislation that prevented correcting gender markers on personal documents for trans people, denying them gender recognition. 

Orbán and his political party, Fidesz, won only 55 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, while his opponent, Péter Magyar, and his party, Tisza, won 138. Magyar and Tisza are considered center-right. While he avoided supporting LGBTQ+ rights during his campaign, Magyar said that he wanted Hungary to be a place “where no one is stigmatized for thinking differently than the majority, or loving differently than the majority.” 

Magyar also campaigned on strengthening Hungary’s relationship with the EU. Previously, the EU froze billions in funding to Hungary over a wealth of violations, including the enactment of this anti-LGBTQ+ law.

Last month, Magyar announced that his government will move to end the country’s ban on same-sex couples adopting children. In 2020, the government under Orbán amended its constitution to ban adoption by same-sex couples by defining “family” as headed by a man and a woman and requiring any applications from single people to be approved by the family affairs minister, who would deny them to single individuals dating same-sex partners.

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