On Tuesday, October 13, lawmakers in Hungary voted to remove anti-LGBTQ+ provisions from a “child protection” law introduced in 2021 by former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government. While many have welcomed this as a positive step forward, activists have pointed out how much more still needs to be done for LGBTQ+ rights in the country.

Introduced in 2021, Act LXXIX banned the “promotion” of LGBTQ+ issues and identities in content destined for minors, under the pretence of cracking down on paedophilia. The legislation faced condemnation from activists, politicians and EU institutions, who denounced how the law represented flagrant discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.

Earlier this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union struck down the law, ruling that it was in breach of numerous EU laws and interfered “with several fundamental rights.”

With a vote of 139 in favour and 51 against, the parliament in Hungary removed the anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in the legislation, marking the first step towards erasing discriminatory policies introduced by the previously ruling party, led by Viktor Orbán. 

Instead of banning the “portrayal” or “promotion” of gender and sexual diversity in content for minors, the amended law will now protect under-18s from material that can “seriously impair the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional or moral development.” Such types of content include pornography, sexual exploitation, grooming, and age-inappropriate sexual content.

While Orbán’s party voted against the amendment, the now-ruling party, Tisza, has a two-thirds majority in parliament, which allowed them to pass the law without needing the opposition’s support.  

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), Háttér Society, and Amnesty International Hungary welcomed the changes in a joint statement. However, they called for further amendments to dismantle the legal framework of discriminatory policies targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

Speaking to the AFP news agency, Tamas Dombos from Háttér Society said: “The fact that restrictions on access to LGBTQ+ content are being removed is definitely an important and positive step forward.”

“But there is still a lot to do,” Dombos added. “Even if the government’s sole aim is to restore the legal status quo that existed before 2020, there are still a great many laws that would need to be amended…and we don’t know whether the government’s working on that.”

In addition to the “child protection” law, Orbán’s party had introduced other anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Hungary, including policies that prevent legal recognition for trans people and adoptions for same-sex couples. 

Human Rights Watch highlighted how the amendments leave “unchanged section 5/A of the Family Protection Act, which contains similar restrictions on content accessible to children.”

“Nor does bill address discriminatory language in the Fundamental Law (Hungary’s constitution) or restrictions in the Freedom of Assembly Act that have been used to prohibit Pride and other LGBT-related assemblies,” the group said.