Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said Saturday that his government would move to change legislation introduced under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that effectively barred same-sex couples from adopting children. Until late 2020, same-sex couples in Hungary, a member of the European Union, could adopt if one partner submitted the application as a single person.
Orbán’s government then changed the law so that adoption applications by single people required approval from the minister responsible for family affairs, a requirement that in practice blocked same-sex couples from adopting. “We can say unequivocally that we will change this system,” Magyar said.
Péter Magyar
(Photo: Denes Erdos/AP, shutterstock)
Asked about the issue during a briefing with reporters, the prime minister said such decisions should not be left to politicians.
“It should not be a minister, a politician, who makes the decision in cases like these, but professionals who are capable of determining the conditions under which a young child can have a life that allows them to become a happy person in society,” he said.
Magyar defeated Orbán after 16 years in power in a landslide election victory in April. If carried out, the adoption reform would mark a significant step toward reversing restrictions imposed on LGBTQ rights during Orbán’s tenure.
Orbán, who presented himself as a defender of “Christian values” against Western liberalism, oversaw legislation banning legal gender changes on official documents and effectively preventing same-sex couples from adopting children.
His government also prohibited schools from teaching material deemed to “promote homosexuality or gender change.”
It additionally defended a controversial law widely criticized as anti-LGBTQ that allows citizens to anonymously report people accused of “questioning the role of the family and the institution of marriage.”
The erosion of LGBTQ rights during Orbán’s 16 years in power had a profound impact on Hungary’s LGBTQ community.
Shortly before the April election, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Orbán’s government had seriously violated EU law through rules banning or restricting access to LGBTQ-related content, measures the court said marginalized gay and transgender people.