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Hungary has come under pressure in recent years over its treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Alamy Stock Photo
LGBT Rights
Hungary has finally ditched an anti-LGBTQ+ law that's caused controversy for years
Former prime minister Viktor Orbán had sought to chip away at LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary.
HUNGARY’S RECENTLY ELECTED government has voted to get rid of legislation that discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community under the leadership of former far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán.
The new centre-right government that beat Orbán’s party in April elections, ending his 16-year tenure, has unravelled a law that significantly restricted the visibility of LGBTQ+ people in media.
Hungary has faced international pressure in recent years over its treatment of LGBTQ+ people, including from the European Union’s Court of Justice and Irish activists and politicians.
In 2021, the Hungarian parliament under Orbán passed legislation to restrict the visibility of LGBTQ+ content, embedding into law that only over-18s should be allowed to engage with information and media that pertains in some way to LGBTQ+ people.
The law had numerous ramifications, like forcing bookshops to take books for children or teens that included characters who were LGBTQ+ off the shelves or wrap them up in plastic.
One of the country’s bookshop chains, Líra Könyv, was fined $34,000 (€30,000) in 2023 for failing to wrap up “Heartstopper”, a popular book-turned-Netflix hit featuring a relationship between two teenage boys.
The new parliament has today voted to amend the legislation to protect minors from material that can “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional or moral development”, removing the specific ban on LGBTQ+ information.
The Orbán government also passed legislation in 2025 restricting freedom of assembly, which it used alongside the LGBTQ+ content prohibition to ban last year’s Pride parade in Budapest.
The Journal visited Budapest in July 2025 to report on the anti-LGBTQ+ politics in Hungary – and how there was still a vibrant community in the capital holding events and working together despite the efforts to push them to the margins of society.
Budapest’s Pride parade went ahead in the face of the government’s attempted ban and threats to prosecute participants and organisers, amassing its largest-ever crowd.
We welcome Hungary’s National Assembly repealing the previous government’s anti-LGBTIQ+ provisions, which the CJEU found in breach of 🇪🇺 law. An important signal of commitment to our common values. The EU is a Union of equality, dignity and fundamental rights for everyone.
— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) October 13, 2026
In a statement to The Journal this afternoon, a spokesperson for Amnesty International Hungary said today’s vote was “an important step to the right direction to ensure that all children in Hungary can grow up in a safer environment”.
“Repealing the homophobic and transphobic ban in the media and advertisement means that the we can have a much better environment to discuss LGBTQI+ rights in Hungary that are essential,” the spokesperson said.
However, they added that further changes to old legislation are still necessary to end the “unlawful and hate-mongering heritage of the Orbán-government”.
“We hope that this will happen soon, so we can all focus on addressing other areas of inequalities in Hungary such as the lack of marriage equality and adoption and the ban on the legal gender recognition for example.”
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