Hungary's parliament voted on October 13 to repeal most provisions of a 2021 law that restricted the portrayal or promotion of sexual and gender diversity in material accessible to children. The measure passed by 139 votes to 51 with support from the governing majority.
The original statute, described by Viktor Orbán's government as a child-protection law, imposed broad limits on LGBTQ-related content. In practice, DW reported, books addressing sexual or gender diversity could be required to carry warnings and be sold in opaque packaging even when their treatment was age appropriate. Critics said the legislation wrongly associated homosexuality with child abuse and stigmatized LGBTQ people.
The amendment removes most of those rules while keeping a provision intended to shield people under 18 from sexually explicit or violent material. That distinction allows lawmakers to retain an age-based content safeguard without the wider restrictions on representations of identity that drew domestic and European criticism.
The vote represents an early break with policies adopted under former prime minister Orbán, who lost office in April. His successor, Peter Magyar, is also conservative and takes a hard line on immigration, but campaigned on reversing what he characterized as repressive approaches to the media and judiciary. He has also promised to dismantle corruption and authoritarian structures he says developed during Orbán's tenure.
European institutions had challenged the 2021 law. The European Court of Justice ruled in April that it violated European Union treaties, according to DW. After the repeal vote, EU commissioners Michael McGrath and Hadja Lahbib welcomed what they called a signal of Hungary's commitment to shared values. The bloc subsequently released €4.2 billion in funding for Hungary.
The available report establishes that the funding was unfrozen following the parliamentary action, though it does not by itself set out every legal or budgetary condition attached to the release. The broader dispute between Budapest and EU institutions has involved rule-of-law concerns extending beyond LGBTQ policy.
For LGBTQ communities and publishers, the practical impact will depend on implementation and any replacement guidance governing material for minors. The retained ban on explicit or violent content still requires authorities to draw boundaries, while the provisions specifically restricting portrayals of sexual and gender diversity are largely removed.
The decision does not erase the effects of the 2021 law, but it changes the legal framework that produced packaging rules and content limits. It is the most significant parliamentary reversal so far of Orbán-era restrictions targeting LGBTQ visibility, carried by a governing majority after a change in national leadership.
