Hungarian legislation shielding minors from exposure to LGBTQI+ dogma violates European Union (E.U.) law and hurts respect for human rights and equality, the bloc’s court ruled Tuesday.
The European Court of Justice said Hungary’s legislation, first proposed in 2021 by the government of outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, “stigmatizes and marginalizes” LGBTQI+ persons and their feelings, and fails to uphold the E.U.’s prohibition of discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation, AP reports.
Hungary’s law specifically prohibited the display of content to minors that depicts homosexuality or gender change, while also providing harsher penalties for crimes of pedophilia, and had been challenged for some time by the E.U. and its courts.
The AP report notes the former Orban government argued its policies, including a more recent law and constitutional amendment that effectively banned the popular Budapest Pride event, sought to protect children from “sexual propaganda.” The report adds:
In its ruling, the Luxembourg-based court found that, for the first time in an action brought against one of the EU’s 27 member states, Hungary had violated Article 2 of the bloc’s foundational treaty, which defines “the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”
It also found that the law breached rules relating to services in the EU’s internal market, as well as data protection laws.
Orban’s government had made the original move to legislate to protect protect minors according to Hungary’s “constitutional identity and Christian culture” gives new generations the chance to learn about Hungarian identity and “to protect its sovereignty as well as the national role of Christianity.”
In August, 2018, the Hungarian government announced it was discontinuing programs in gender studies at state-run universities after determining the programs serve no identifiable purpose and are based on “ideology rather than science.”
Hungary’s newly elected Prime Minister Péter Magyar of the victorious Tisza party has yet to indicate whether he will make a challenge against the E.U. ruling.