The highest European Union court ruled that Hungary’s ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools or primetime television violates EU laws and treaties and must be repealed. Hungary voted out Viktor Orbán, the prime minister behind that bill, earlier this month, and now needs to respond to the EU’s demand.

“There is now no excuse for the Commission not to require Hungary to quickly withdraw the law,” said Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA Europe’s deputy director. “Hungary cannot enter a post-Orbán era without repealing [anti-LGBTQ+] legislation, including the Pride ban. If [incoming Hungarian prime minister] Péter Magyar truly aims to be pro-EU, he must place this at the top of his agenda for his first 100 days in office, as an essential part of his EU-facing reforms. “

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The law in question was enacted in 2021 and was championed by former Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán as an “anti-pedophilia” law. In fact, the law banned media and schools from discussing LGBTQ+ identities and required sex education workers to be registered with the government and to refrain from promoting “representation of specific sexual orientations.” The bill has been compared to Russia’s ban on what it called “homosexual propaganda.”

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled against the law on several grounds, including the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and various data protection acts.

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Crucially, this marks the first time the court found an EU member state to be in violation of Article 2 of the EU Treaty, which says that the EU is founded on “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.” The court said that Hungary’s “law is contrary to the very identity of the Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails. Hungary cannot validly rely on its national identity as justification for adopting a law which is in breach of the values referred to above.”

In a press release, the court said, “The aspects of the amending law targeting content which portrays or promotes deviation from the self-identity corresponding to the sex assigned at birth, gender reassignment, or homosexuality constitute a coordinated series of discriminatory measures which are in breach, in a way that is both manifest and particularly serious, of the rights of non-cisgender persons – including transgender persons – or non-heterosexual persons, as well as the values of respect for human dignity, equality and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”

Hungary has yet to respond to the court’s decision. However, if they fail to comply with the ruling, there may be financial penalties. Submitting to those penalties would be contrary to the plans that incoming Prime Minister Magyar has signaled.

This particular law is only one of many anti-LGBTQ+ laws that were enacted in Hungary under Orbán. They have passed laws to limit adoption to married heterosexual couples only, banned Pride marches, and prevented trans people from correcting their gender markers on personal documents. While things are expected to improve in Hungary under Magyar, his Tisza party is still center-right, and he avoided saying anything definite about supporting LGBTQ+ rights during his campaign. He has not made any specific promises about LGBTQ+ rights since his victory, instead vaguely stating that he wants Hungary to be a place “where no one is stigmatized for thinking differently than the majority, or loving differently than the majority.”

Magyar ran his campaign on the idea of a closer relationship with the EU. Crucially, this focuses on bringing the country back into line with the EU’s rules to begin receiving funding once again. Previously, the EU froze billions in funding to Hungary over a wealth of violations, including the enactment of this anti-LGBTQ+ law.

With this ruling, the CJEU has signaled that a vital part of Hungary becoming a successful EU member state under Magyar will include ending some of the discriminatory practices against the LGBTQ+ community that his predecessor installed.

While it’s unclear what Magyar and his party might have done about these laws by themselves, they now have a vested financial interest in doing the right thing.

“We welcome today’s landmark ruling judgment of the court,” said Eva Hrncirova, a spokesperson for the European Commission. “This is the first time that the court finds such a violation of a key treaty provision on the EU values. Now the ball is on the Hungarian side of the court; it’s now for the Hungarian government to implement the decision.”

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