Hungary to scrap ban on same-sex couples adopting
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar is aligning the country more closely with wider EU policy. (Getty)
Hungary’s new government is planning to scrap a law that effectively prevents same-sex couples from adopting children.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced plans to amend the legislation, which was introduced in 2020 under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government.
The law made it significantly harder for same-sex couples to adopt by restricting adoption to married couples, while single people could only adopt with special permission from the minister responsible for family policy.
At the time, the changes were widely criticised by LGBTQ+ rights groups, who said they discriminated against same-sex couples and LGBTQ+ families.
The announcement marks a major shift following Orbán’s defeat in April, when Magyar’s Tisza party won the Hungarian election and ended Orbán’s long period in power.
Orbán’s government had introduced a series of controversial measures targeting LGBTQ+ people during his time in office, including restrictions on LGBTQ+ content and legislation defining the family in explicitly heterosexual terms.
Now, Magyar’s government says it intends to take a different approach.
The proposed amendment would remove the restrictions that have effectively prevented same-sex couples from adopting, potentially opening the door for more LGBTQ+ families to adopt children in Hungary.
The move has been welcomed as a significant step away from some of the anti-LGBTQ+ policies introduced under Orbán.
