Hungary's Prime Minister Péter Magyar has announced that his government will change a 2020 law that has effectively prevented gay and lesbian couples from adopting children — one of the most significant moves to restore LGBTQ+ rights since he ousted Viktor Orbán in April's landslide election.

How the ban worked

Before 2020, same-sex couples in Hungary could adopt by having one partner apply as a single person. Orbán's right-wing Fidesz party changed that with legislation requiring all single-person adoption applications to be personally approved by the family affairs minister — a political appointee. In practice, the result was a ban on same-sex couples adopting, with bureaucratic cover.

The law was part of a broader rollback of LGBTQ+ rights under Orbán, which also included ending the legal recognition of gender changes in personal documents and banning school materials seen as addressing homosexuality or gender transition. Separately, on 21 April 2026 — nine days after the election — the EU's Court of Justice ruled that Orbán's 2021 law restricting LGBTQ+ content for minors violated EU law and the Union's founding values, in a case brought by the European Commission.

It should not be the minister, a politician … who makes the decision in such cases, but rather professionals capable of determining the conditions under which a given young child can achieve … a life that allows them to become a happy and harmonious member of society.

— Péter Magyar, Prime Minister of Hungary

What Magyar said

Speaking on Saturday, Magyar was direct: his government would change the system so that adoption decisions rest with qualified professionals rather than a cabinet minister. The move signals a deliberate break from Orbán's approach of using state institutions to enforce social conservatism — and a step toward aligning Hungary with the EU's human rights framework its predecessor had repeatedly clashed with.

What remains unchanged — for now

Hungary has never legalised same-sex marriage and still does not. Civil partnerships continue to be recognised. The adoption reform Magyar has outlined would not change either of those positions — but it would remove one of the most direct institutional barriers LGBTQ+ people face in Hungarian family law.

Source: Reuters, 12 September 2026