Hungary’s parliament has passed a law that effectively bans same-sex couples from adopting children, provoking a major outcry from human rights groups and LGBTQ activists.
The legislation, pushed forward by the government of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose Fidesz party enjoys a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, makes only married couples eligible to adopt children.
With same sex-marriages banned in the country, it basically disqualifies gay and lesbian unions from applying for adoption. “The main rule is that only married couples can adopt a child, that is, a man and a woman who are married,” the law reads.
A loophole in which one member of an LGBTQ couple adopted a child as a single person has also been closed. Unmarried people now require special permission from the family affairs minister to adopt, and Katalin Novak, who occupies the post, is known as a strong supporter of traditional values.
During Tuesday’s session of the National Assembly, 134 out of 199 MPs voted in favor of the law, 45 rejected it, with five deputies abstaining. The Democratic Coalition, which has nine seats, skipped the vote as it labeled the legislation illegal.
The parliament also approved amendments to the constitutions, which among other things define a family as the union of a father, who is male, and a mother, who is female.
Amnesty International blasted the law as “discriminatory, homophobic and transphobic,” with the group’s director, David Vig, saying it represents yet another attack on the LGBT community in the country.
“This is a dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights,” Vig said, accusing the government of using the coronavirus pandemic to rush through the law, which was just proposed in November.
International gay rights group ILGA said that due to the legislation, “LGBTI children will be forced to grow up in an environment which restricts them from being able to express their identities.”
Hungary has firmly resisted the EU’s recent push to expand the rights of LGBTQ people, despite risking violating EU law.
Along with Poland, the Hungarian government has been stalling the approval of the EU budget over a clause which links the allocation of funds to how member states uphold the rule of law. A compromise on the 1.8 trillion package was not reached until last week.
The disagreements between Budapest and Brussels go far beyond the rights of same sex couples, and include immigration, media freedom, and rules for non-governmental organizations.
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