Rights groups condemn Hungarian ban on same sex adoptions
Humanrights groups yesterday condemned a newhungarian law that effectively bans adoption for same-sex couples and applies a strict Christian conservative viewpoint to the legal definition of a family.
The amendment, passed by Hungary’s right-wing ruling coalition in parliament on Wednesday, alters the constitutional definition of families to exclude transgender and other LGBT individuals, defining the basis of the family as “marriage and the parentchild relationship”, and declaring that “the mother is awomanand the father is aman”.
The changes are the latest in a series of moves seen by critics as hostile to LGBT rights by Hungary’s nationalist ruling party Fidesz and its hardline leader, Primeminister Viktor Orban, whohas long said he was building an “illiberal” Christian democracy.
David Vig, director of rights group Amnesty Hungary, called the passage of theamendment “a dark day for humanrights”. Lawmakers from one opposition party boycotted the parliamentary vote in protest.
Same-sex marriage was constitutionally banned in Hungary in 2012, but civil partnerships are recognised. However, thenew amendmentdeclares that only married couplesmayadopt children, effectively barring same-sex couples or single individuals from doing so. The amendmentalso tasks the state with “protecting the right of children to selfidentity according to their sex at birth”, and mandates that children be raised “in accordance with the values based on Hungary’s constitutional identity and Christian culture”.
This week’s changes comeon the heels of a scandal involving Jozsef Szajer, amemberof the European Parliament and one of the founding membersof Fidesz, whoresigned after being caught by Brussels police attending an illegal lockdown party in late November described by its host as a gay orgy.
Police said that Szajer, whowas one of the main authors of Hungary’snew 2012 constitution which limited LGBT rights, was caught with drugs in his backpack after attempting to flee the
party. Helater resigned from Fidesz.
In a press release on Wednesday, Budapest Pride, organisers of Hungary’s largest LGBT event, said the Szajer case demonstrated the hypocrisy of Fidesz’s Christian conservatism.
“It reveals what kind of behaviour Fidesz considers ideal from society’s gay, lesbian and bisexual members: a double life built upon lies which displays the desired Christianconservative heterosexual family model while actively working to
deprivemembers of THELGBTQ community of their rights,” the group wrote.
Abill passed inmay permanently defined one’s sex as the “biological sex determined by primary sex characteristics and chromosomes”, effectively disallowing transgender individuals from petitioning the government to change their names and genders in official documents. That law was sent to the Constitutional Court in November for review.
Leading politicians have compared same-sex adoption with paedophilia, and have frequentlymadeopenly homophobic statements.
In an October radio interview discussing a popular children’s book that featured non-heterosexual characters, Primeminister Viktor Orban said that Hungarians “are patient and tolerant” concerning homosexuality, but implied a connection between the LGBT community and child abuse.
“There is a red line which cannot be crossed. Leave our children alone!” Orban said.
Luca Dudits, a spokesperson for LGBT rights group Hatter Society, yesterday said thenewamendment violates internationalhumanrights norms.
Ashortage of adoptive parents in Hungary means manychildren are adopted abroad, Dudits said, and further restricting that number will result in “more children remaining in state care or being adopted abroad where they cannot maintain their language or cultural identity.”
Unmarried individualsmay still apply to adopt children under thenewamendment, but must receive special approval from Hungary’s minister of family affairs Katalin Novak, an ultraconservative ruling party politician tasked with managing Hungary’s family policy. — AP