We all know time exists in a circle, especially when politics in Hungary just seems to go backwards n’ around.
The Hungarian Government just passed a bill that effectively bans same-sex couples from adopting children.
Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government put forward the legislation on Tuesday, stating that only married couples or single relatives can adopt children. This is unsurprising as same-sex marriage is still illegal in Hungary, but up until this point, adoption was possible if one of the partners applied alone.
The new laws have been deemed a “dark day for human rights” by Hungarian rights groups.
There are places (e.g. Romania, Hungary, Russia) where same sex marriage is illegal but bestiality isn’t. Can’t comprehend just how messed up that is.
— safiyyah 🦕 (@yesiamvibing) May 14, 2020
Since Mr Orban took power in 2010, he has made a series of extensive changes to the country’s constitution. Tuesday’s bill defines a family as “based on marriage and the parent-child relation. The mother is a woman, the father a man”.
Same-sex couples will no longer be able to adopt, even if one person applies on their own. “The main rule is that only married couples can adopt a child, that is, a man and a woman who are married,” Justice Minister Judit Varga said.
Under the new bill, single people will now be required to seek government approval before they can adopt. The bill also states that parents must raise their children in a “conservative spirit”.
PM Orbán: “common sense won the day” in the course of the European Council summit last weekhttps://t.co/U2KQI7fI62 pic.twitter.com/xKIjKBgtHl
— About Hungary (@abouthungary) December 15, 2020
“Hungary defends the right of children to identify with their birth gender and ensures their upbringing based on our nation’s constitutional identity and values based on our Christian culture,” the bill states.
It seems the bill comes as a reaction to the gender liberation in the rest of the world, saying “new ideological processes in the West” have made it necessary to “protect children against possible ideological or biological interference”.
Rights groups have strongly condemned the new laws. “This is a dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights,” said David Vig, director of Amnesty Hungary.
Worries over the effects of the bill for the LGBQTI+ community were similarly raised by activists including Masen Davis, Executive Director at Transgender Europe, who said: “We are deeply concerned for the health and safety of trans children and adults in Hungary in such a hostile climate.”
Hungary is notorious for its regressive identity politics. In May, the Hungarian parliament passed a bill that effectively banned transgender people from changing their sex from the one assigned at birth.
Just last week the EU had to hold negotiations with Hungary and Poland to prevent them from vetoing the EU’s long-term budget, in what they see as an imposition on progressive politics.
