ILGA-Europe welcomes that the Hungarian National Assembly voted yesterday to repeal the anti-LGBTQI provisions introduced by the 2021 propaganda law.
The new legislation is a narrow implementation of the April 21 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which held that the provisions censoring LGBTQI content violated EU law as well as the fundamental values of the European Union. The propaganda law from in June 2021 prohibited the depiction and so-called “promotion” of homosexuality and gender diversity among those under the age of 18, thereby shielding minors from content related to sexual and gender minorities and severely stigmatizing and marginalizing members of the LGBTQI community.
The new amendments allow LGBTQI people and their stories to reappear in media and thus the public eye, and comprehensive, LGBTI-inclusive sex education can finally return to schools in Hungary. While the legislative amendments remove legal barriers, the chilling effect the 2021 law has had on society will not disappear overnight.
The new legislation is an important first step for a more equal and free Hungary, but there is a lot of work to be done. The ban on legal gender recognition needs to be lifted, and the Hungarian Fundamental Law still contains passages that stigmatize trans people and rainbow families. Additional provisions aimed at implementing the propaganda law, particularly the government decree mandating the wrapping of books containing LGBTQI content in plastic and restricting their distribution, also needs to be repealed.
We congratulate civil society and LGBTI people in Hungary for their tireless work that made the new legislation possible.
