Hungary’s conservative government now bans public pride events organized by LGBT activists after passing a new constitutional amendment designed to protect children from gender ideology.
The amendment easily passed Hungary’s parliament on Monday with a final 140–21 vote. The measure was spearheaded by the longtime coalition formed between the Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Alliance and the Christian Democratic People’s Party. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads the party alliance, celebrated the amendment’s passage.
“Hungary’s constitutional amendment is now law,” he posted on X. “We’re protecting children’s development, affirming that a person is born either male or female, and standing firm against drugs and foreign interference. In Hungary, common sense matters.”
Elected prime minister in 2010, Orbán has targeted the LGBT community in Hungary for years. In 2021, the ruling Fidesz party banned the media depiction of homosexuality or gender reassignment surgeries geared toward minors. Monday’s legislation is the latest example of Orbán’s crackdown on the LGBT movement.
The amendment forbids LGBT pride parades that conservative lawmakers argued threatened the well-being of children. One of its provisions specifically declares that children’s rights to moral, physical, and intellectual development supersede the right to peaceful assembly and almost every other right, except the right to life.
Hungarian authorities are also allowed to use facial recognition software to identify and potentially fine demonstrators at the newly prohibited pride parades if they are held in defiance of the law. Budapest, the capital of Hungary, typically hosts an annual pride parade. It remains to be seen whether LGBT activists will proceed with the public display come June.
Hungary’s parliament voted to ban LGBT events and use facial recognition software last month, sparking protests around the country. That legislation is now enshrined in the European nation’s constitution. The move is expected to draw more outrage.
The new amendment also explicitly defines sex as male and female, similar to President Donald Trump’s executive order achieving the same end. Therefore, a Hungarian citizen’s sex status cannot be legally changed.
“This is not an attack on individual self-expression, but a clarification that legal norms are based on biological reality—an approach intended to ensure coherence in state administration and social organization,” Orbán spokesman Zoltán Kovács said on social media prior to the vote.
Unrelated to gender ideology, the measure also suspends dual citizenship of some Hungarian nationals who may be receiving foreign support and could threaten Hungary’s independence.
“This change is part of a broader effort to counter what officials describe as foreign-funded political pressure networks that undermine Hungarian democracy and sovereignty,” Kovács added.
The amendment marks the 15th change to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, the country’s constitution, since Orbán’s party authored and approved it in 2011.
