# Hungary passes constitutional changes tightening restrictions on LGBTQ rights
Hungarian lawmakers have approved constitutional changes that further restrict LGBTQ rights, including provisions that codify a ban on Pride events and state that people can only be male or female. The vote gives Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government another legal layer for a broader campaign against public LGBTQ visibility.
DW reported that the amendments were pushed through by Orbán’s Fidesz party, which holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority and also had the backing of far-right lawmakers. That made the vote likely from the start, but it does not make it less consequential. Turning contested policy into constitutional text makes it harder to unwind later.
The new changes also underpin legislation passed on 18 March that already banned the annual Pride march and effectively restricted freedom of assembly. The article says the latest law means no public event can display queer symbols such as rainbows, present sexuality “as an end in itself,” or feature attire that diverges from participants’ assigned sex at birth.
The law goes further by allowing authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend prohibited events. It also introduces fines of up to €550, an amount DW notes is just below Hungary’s monthly minimum wage. That combination of surveillance and punishment gives the measure practical force.
Orbán has defended the move in ideological terms, saying in March, “We won’t let woke ideology endanger our kids.” The government’s critics see something much bigger: not a one-off culture-war gesture but another step in a pattern of narrowing public space for dissent and minority rights.
The opposition Momentum party tried to block parliament before the vote, while rights groups warned that the law could breach EU rules and intensify pressure on the European Commission to act. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee called the law a significant escalation in efforts to suppress dissent and weaken rights protection.
The article also situates the change in a longer arc. DW says Hungary has amended its constitution repeatedly over the past six years to tighten restrictions on LGBTQ rights, including defining marriage as between a man and a woman in 2019 and stating in 2020 that a mother can only be a woman and a father a man.
Organisers say they still plan to hold the Budapest Pride parade on 28 June despite the ban, and the city’s mayor has said he hopes it will be bigger than ever. That means the constitutional amendment may end up provoking a confrontation rather than closing the issue.
For now, the verified fact is the legal change itself: Hungary has written a tougher anti-LGBTQ line into its constitution and given authorities more tools to enforce it.
