Hungarian parliament scraps Orbán's anti-LGBTQ measures

The Hungarian parliament has voted to amend child protection laws, scrapping measures that stigmatise gay and transgender people.

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LGBTQ and human rights activists warmly welcomed the move, but called for changes to other Orbán-era laws.

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The 2021 Child Protection Law, passed by the large Fidesz majority of then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, banned the "portrayal or promotion of homosexuality or transgenderism".

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Since Orbán's April election defeat, the Tisza government of Péter Magyar has been working to dismantle the previous government's legacy.

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Minutes after Tuesday's vote, Budapest said the EU had agreed to release €4.2bn (£3.5bn) of funds frozen in the last years of the Fidesz government.

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The European Commission said last month that the Magyar government had addressed a number of "rule of law breaches affecting the EU budget", and urged EU leaders to unlock the funds , externaland readmit Hungary to two key EU programmes - Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe.

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Hungary's 2021 law had affected a wide range of other laws, including education and the right of assembly.

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Magyar's Tisza party commands the same two-thirds majority that Orbán's party used to have, and the measures passed on Tuesday were bundled together by the new government in a package of laws designed to unravel the Fidesz legislation.

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"We are very happy that this got adopted," Tamás Dombos of civil rights group the Háttér Society told the BBC.

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"We've been fighting this so-called child protection law for five years.

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Both the Fidesz and Tisza governments made child protection central to their image.

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But while Fidesz under Viktor Orbán appealed to the conservative electorate by identifying gay and transgender people as a threat to public morals, Tisza under Prime Minister Péter Magyar is trying to remove or soften legislation, without actually identifying as a liberal-minded government in favour of full equality.

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In June 2025, the Gay Pride march through Budapest drew an estimated quarter of a million people, despite a promise by then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to his supporters that he would prevent it happening.

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Police stood aside despite an official ban, and proceedings against the city mayor and others for organising the festival were later dropped.

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This year's event went ahead without restrictions.

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The child protection issue turned from being a strong card in Orbán's hand to become his Achilles heel, when the public found out that his government had supported the pardon of the deputy head of a children's home who had been found guilty of covering up the paedophile crimes of his boss.

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In his own election campaign, Péter Magyar presented his party as a champion of the rights of children in state care, while painstakingly avoiding the issues of gay and transgender rights, for fear of alienating right-wing voters.

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Other issues he wanted addressed include the full recognition of same-sex marriage, same-sex couples' rights to adopt children, and the restoration of the right of transgender people to change their names in official documents.

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"I'm very cautious," Magyar said in an interview published in Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday.

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"As prime minister, it's my duty to represent all Hungarians, and we have sensitive issues, such as the situation of sexual minorities."

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Fidesz and its sister party, the Christian Democrats, voted against the new amendments to the law on Tuesday.

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"There is no place for the promotion of LGBTQ content in schools or the media," the Christian Democrats said in a statement on their website.

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Unprecedented ruling finds Hungary's anti-LGBTQ laws in breach of EU values

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Charges dropped against Budapest mayor over 2025 Pride march

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EU hails Hungary's 'wind of change' and unlocks €16.4bn for new PM Magyar

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