EU Court Rules Hungary's LGBTQ+ Content Ban Violates European Law

Hungary violated EU law when it banned children from accessing LGBTQ+ content, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled Tuesday, ordering Budapest to scrap the legislation.

The landmark judgment marks a blow to outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s legacy as his longtime rival Péter Magyar prepares to take office next month.

Hungary’s legislative crackdown on LGBTQ+ representation is in breach of a series of EU laws and “constitute[s] a particularly serious interference with several fundamental rights,” the Court said in a press release, siding with the infringement procedure originally lodged by the European Commission.

The case concerns Hungary’s 2021 law restricting or banning the “promotion” of homosexuality and gender transition in media accessible to children, which Budapest introduced when it adopted the EU’s audiovisual rulebook and its provisions on protecting children from harmful content.

The Commission ultimately referred the case to the court, backed by 15 member countries and the European Parliament.

“The Hungarian bill is a shame,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in 2021, vowing to use “all the powers of the Commission to ensure that the rights of all EU citizens are guaranteed, whoever you are and wherever you live.”

Despite that pressure, the Hungarian government pressed ahead. Last year, it banned Pride events and authorized police to use biometric cameras to identify organizers and attendees — deepening its standoff with the EU.

The court’s ruling is in line with earlier legal statements. The court’s top legal adviser previously argued that Hungary “has significantly deviated from the model of a constitutional democracy,” calling out the rules for being “based on a value judgment that homosexual and non-cisgender life is not of equal value or status as heterosexual and cisgender life.”

“We clearly said that, according to Tisza and the many million Hungarian people supporting it, everyone can live with whoever they love as long as they do not violate laws and they are not harmful to others,” Magyar said in the aftermath of his election win, also backing Pride events in the name of the right to freedom of assembly.

“Hungary wants to be a country where no one is stigmatized for thinking differently, or for loving someone different from the majority, or for believing something different from the majority,” he added.