This is the first time that an EU court found that a member state violated one of its founding values.
Faefyx Collington (They/Them) at LGBTQ Nation:
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ruled that Hungary’s ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools or primetime television violates EU laws and treaties and must be repealed.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. “
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. 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.”
[...] 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.
The Court of Justice of the European Union issues a ruling against Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ+ Don’t Say Gay or Trans law that bans LGBTQ+ content in schools or primetime television.
