Hungary’s Parliament Repeals Orbán-Era Anti-LGBTQ Measures

What changed

Hungary’s parliament has amended the 2021 child-protection law, scrapping measures that banned the “portrayal or promotion” of homosexuality or transgenderism. The Tisza government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar used its two-thirds majority to begin dismantling a central piece of Viktor Orbán’s legacy; Fidesz and the Christian Democrats voted against it.

Why it matters

The change removes legal language that LGBTQ people and rights groups said had made them targets. Tamás Dombos of the Háttér Society called the vote a major improvement after five years of campaigning, while stressing that the fight is not over.

The old law reached beyond school materials. It also affected education and the right of assembly. Activists are still seeking recognition of same-sex marriage, adoption rights for same-sex couples and the restoration of transgender people’s ability to change their names in official documents.

That makes this more than a technical amendment. Under Orbán, child protection was used to frame gay and transgender people as a threat to public morals. Magyar’s government is now softening that approach, but it is doing so cautiously rather than presenting itself as a liberal equality government. The political calculation is visible: Magyar has championed children in state care while avoiding language on gay and transgender rights that could alienate right-wing voters.

The shift follows a broader political reversal. Budapest Pride drew an estimated quarter of a million people in June 2025 despite an attempted ban, and this year’s march went ahead without restrictions. The child-protection issue also weakened Orbán after his government supported a pardon for a deputy head of a children’s home convicted of covering up his boss’s paedophile crimes.

Minutes after the vote, Budapest said the European Union had agreed to release €4.2bn in frozen funds. The timing links Hungary’s legal reset to its wider effort to repair relations with the EU, though the final timing and conditions for releasing that money remain unclear.

The next test is whether the government turns this first repeal into broader legal change. For now, the door that was shut during the Orbán years has opened slightly. It has not been thrown open.