Hungary Passes Constitutional Amendment Banning Pride

Hungary has passed a controversial constitutional amendment banning public LGBTQIA+ events, with thousands protesting in the streets and in parliament.

Passed on Monday, the amendment makes it an offence to conduct public events that contradict the country’s controversial “child protection” laws, which prohibit the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality or gender diversity to those under 18.

The motion was introduced by rightwing populist party, Fidesz, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who allege the amendment protects children’s mental, physical and moral development from “woke ideology”.

Before the amendment went to a vote, a group of protestors, including opposing politicians, zip tied themselves together and attempted to blockade the entrance to a parliamentary parking garage, and had to be physically removed by police.

Requiring at least two-thirds of the parliament’s support, the amendment passed with 140 members voting for and 21 against, and allows the government to use facial recognition to identify those who attend illegal events.

Dávid Bedő, a parliamentarian with the opposing Momentum party and blockade participant, said that Orbán and Fidesz “have been dismantling democracy and the rule of law” for the last 15 years.

“In the past two or three months, we see that this process has been sped up.”

Constitutional amendment a “clear message”

The amendment also enshrines the constitutional recognition of only two sexes, in a move that closely mirrors Trump’s executive order recognising two genders, assigned at birth and unchanging.

In a statement made yesterday, government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said that the change is “not an attack on individual self-expression, but a clarification that legal norms are based on biological reality.”

Dánel Döbrentey, a lawyer with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, said that the ammendment carried a “clear message” for trans and gender diverse people.

“It is definitely and purely and strictly about humiliating people and excluding them, not just from the national community, but even from the community of human beings,” he said.

The amendment codifies an earlier law passed in March, effectively banning public LGBTQIA+ events.

In a statement released after the legislation passed, the United Nations and its Human Rights Chief Volker Türk called for Hungary to repeal the law, and “combat the high levels of intolerance, discrimination, bullying and harassment related to sexual orientation and gender identity, faced by children in particular, in line with Hungary’s international human rights obligations.”

Over ten thousand Hungarians descended on Budapest to protest the amendment on Saturday 12 April, in what organisers dubbed “Gray Pride“. Dressed in gray and black clothes, attendees carried monochromatic pride flags and ironic signs.