Hungary

Dismantling the rights of LGBTIQ people was a central pillar of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government from 2010 until his electoral defeat in 2026, alongside an increasingly authoritarian turn and closer political alignment with Russia. Same-sex sexual relations are legal in Hungary, and same-sex couples can enter registered partnerships, but same-sex marriage is explicitly banned by the constitution, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Joint adoption by same-sex couples is prohibited, and the constitutional definition of family excludes non-heterosexual and nontraditional families. While discrimination and hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity are formally illegal, LGBTIQ people continue to face regular harassment and violence, and legal protections have steadily eroded.

Transgender and intersex people’s rights have been especially targeted. In 2020, Hungary passed a law introduced on March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility, that made it impossible for people to change their legal gender markers, effectively abolishing legal gender recognition. In March 2025, in a case involving a trans refugee in Hungary, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a landmark ruling finding that under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, states must rectify inaccurate personal data related to a person’s gender identity. Further, the requirement of surgery for gender recognition constitutes an unjustifiable restriction on fundamental rights. While this ruling set an important precedent across Europe, Hungary has not complied with the ruling and has rebuked it by passing a constitutional amendment defining gender as either male or female, which further codifies the 2020 law banning legal gender recognition.

Freedom of expression and assembly for LGBTIQ people has also been sharply curtailed. In 2021, Hungary adopted a law similar to Russia’s so-called “gay propaganda” legislation, banning LGBTIQ content for minors and restricting portrayals of LGBTIQ people in education, media, and advertising. The law has created a chilling effect, entrenched negative stereotypes, and deepened discrimination, prompting international condemnation, a lawsuit by the European Commission, and the freezing of certain EU funds. In 2022, alongside parliamentary elections, the government held an “LGBT in Education” referendum aimed at further limiting discussion of homosexuality and transgender issues in schools. A coordinated campaign led by the LGBTIQ movement successfully defeated the referendum by ensuring turnout fell below the required threshold.

Restrictions intensified further in 2025. On March 18, Parliament passed legislation effectively criminalizing the organization of public Pride events, empowering authorities to ban marches, fine participants, and use surveillance tools against attendees. Despite this ban, the largest Pride march in Hungarian history took place, drawing tens of thousands of participants in Budapest and becoming a powerful act of protest and visibility against the government’s policies. The march highlighted both the scale of public resistance and the resilience of Hungary’s LGBTIQ communities in the face of legal repression. More than a protest, the march came to symbolize the beginning of the end of Orbán’s regime: it revealed the limits of fear, the scale of public resistance, and the capacity of Hungarian civil society to defy authoritarian repression in the streets. Around the same period, constitutional amendments entrenched these restrictions by prioritizing “child protection” over other fundamental rights and defining gender strictly in biological terms. In 2026, Hungary filed criminal charges against the mayors of Budapest and Pécs for their role in organizing Pride events in 2025.

That symbolism gained even greater force in April 2026, when Orbán was decisively voted out of office after 16 years in power. His defeat marked not only a political turning point, but also a repudiation of the authoritarian and anti-LGBTIQ project that had defined his rule. Seen in retrospect, the 2025 Pride march was not only the largest act of LGBTIQ resistance in modern Hungarian history, but also the moment when the regime first visibly began to lose its grip. Despite the increasingly hostile legal environment, public opinion in Hungary continues to show a gradual movement toward stronger support for fairness and equality. This shift is driven in large part by a vibrant, determined LGBTIQ civil society and its global allies, whose continued activism, including the mass mobilization seen at Pride in 2025, demonstrates an enduring commitment to a Hungary that is safe, democratic, and equal for all.