Unprecedented ruling finds Hungary's anti-LGBTQ laws in breach of EU values

The European Union's top court has ruled that Hungarian anti-LGBTQ laws violate EU rules and infringe its values of equality and minority rights. The laws were brought in by Viktor Orbán's government in 2021 and banned so-called promotion of homosexuality or gender change to under-18s, arguing it violated child protection laws. The European Court of Justice ruled that the Orbán reforms breached EU rules on a number of levels, and significantly that it also broke the founding values of Article 2 of the EU Treaty - an unprecedented finding. The ruling comes nine days after Hungarians voted to end Orbán's 16-year era of continuous rule. The ECJ ruled that the Hungarian law interfered with rights such as a ban on discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation, respect for private and family life and freedom of expression and information. The law also stigmatised and marginalised people who were transgender or not heterosexual and associated them with people convicted of paedophilia, the court found. The Hungarian law was "contrary to the very identity of the Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails", it ruled. John Morijn, professor of law and politics