Hungary Bans Same-Sex Couples from Adopting Children

HUNGARY’S parliament has approved a new law that effectively bans gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.

In a move condemned by LGBTQ groups across Europe, Hungarian lawmakers have ruled that only married couples will be allowed to adopt children. As same-sex marriage is not legal in the Central European country, this will effectively ban gay and lesbian couples from adoption. Previously, same-sex partners could technically adopt if one of them applied as an individual, which was permitted in some circumstances.

The law follows a series of controversial new policies passed by Hungary’s conservative-populist Fidesz party led by PM Victor Orban. With a two-thirds majority in Budapest’s parliament, Orban and his MPs have been accused by activists and NGOs of targeting the LGBTQ community with their right-wing laws. Earlier in the year, a new law banned Hungarians from changing their gender in official documents, which many saw as an attack on the country’s transsexual community.

Amnesty International described the new law as a “dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community”, with the director of the organisation’s Budapest branch saying: “These discriminatory laws – rushed through under the cover of the Coronavirus pandemic – are just the latest attack on LGBTQ people by Hungarian authorities”.

Another constitutional amendment voted through parliament on Monday was the stipulation that Hungary “protects self-identity of the children’s’ sex by birth”, making it harder for transsexual people to assume the gender they feel is theirs. Transgender Europe, a Berlin-based NGO, said they are “deeply concerned for the health and safety of trans children and adults in Hungary in such a hostile environment.”

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