CIVICUS discusses LGBTQI+ rights in Hungary with members of the organising team of the 2026 Budapest Pride Community Festival.

This year’s Budapest Pride, to be held on 27 June, was approved by police in May, weeks after former right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost the April general election. Orbán’s government had banned the march and passed a series of anti-LGBTQI+ laws that a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) found to be in breach of EU founding values. Those laws remain on the books.

How did last year’s banned Pride march shape the movement?

Pride is a demonstration of visibility, a celebration of diversity, and a stand for human rights. It shows that LGBTQI+ people live here, belong here and are entitled to the same rights as anyone else. Its goal is a future in which Hungary’s LGBTQI+ people face no systemic or everyday discrimination because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Last year’s Pride, which the authorities attempted to ban, was a defining moment for the LGBTQI+ movement in Hungary. Those in power sought to intimidate the community and discourage participation. Instead, hundreds of thousands of people stood up for freedom, legal equality and the right to peaceful assembly. This clearly showed that Hungary’s Pride has long been more than a community event. It’s a democratic minimum, a stand for the principle that the state can’t decide who’s allowed to be visible in their own country.

The 2025 march strengthened the community, but it didn’t erase years of trauma. LGBTQI+ people have been targets of political campaigns, rights-restricting laws and stigmatising government communication. Last year’s collective stand showed that a significant part of Hungarian society rejected anti-LGBTQI+ hate-mongering. That gives us strength. But political change alone doesn’t automatically mean legal or social safety.

What role did local civil society and the international community play in responding?

Civil society organisations, community groups, human rights defenders, international partners, volunteers and regular people kept LGBTQI+ rights on the agenda even as government policy worked explicitly against them. Last year’s Pride mobilisation wasn’t simply a large crowd on the streets. It was the result of many years of communication, community-building and legal and organising work.

International support has been very important. EU institutions, members of the European Parliament, EU commissioners, cultural institutes, embassies and international civil society organisations publicly backed Budapest Pride and the Hungarian LGBTQI+ community. This mattered politically, but also in terms of community safety. It sent a message that LGBTQI+ rights are not a domestic issue, but a European human rights issue.

What tangible changes does the new government need to make?

The new government has replaced openly hostile official communication with signals of a more open attitude towards LGBTQI+ people. The police have acknowledged our notification for the 2026 Pride event. This is encouraging, but our trust depends not on gestures but on tangible institutional and legislative steps, and the reality is that the anti-LGBTQI+ laws and institutional legacy of the Orbán era didn’t disappear with the change of government.

Laws restricting LGBTQI+ topics in education, media and publishing remain in force. Legal gender recognition for transgender and intersex people is still impossible. Same-sex couples continue to face discrimination in adoption and family recognition. Freedom of peaceful assembly remains fragile.

The first and most important thing the government should do is implement the decision of the EU Court of Justice that found that the 2021 so-called ‘child protection’ law is contrary to EU law and to fundamental European values. This law is not meant to protect children but to stigmatise LGBTQI+ people, and has been used to ban Pride.

In April, we presented Prime Minister Péter Magyar with 14 demands for restoring the Hungarian legal system to at least its pre-2010 state and ending the treatment of LGBTQI+ people as second-class citizens. They include restoring freedoms of assembly and expression, ending censorship of LGBTQI+ content, reinstating legal gender recognition for transgender and intersex people, removing homophobic restrictions from adoption and assisted reproduction laws, and restoring the independent Equal Treatment Authority and the rule of law.

The government must not delay. In the short term, it must repeal the 2021 propaganda law, fully restore the right to peaceful assembly and reinstate legal gender recognition for transgender people. In the medium term, it must comprehensively review adoption rules, family law and anti-discrimination and education regulations. In the longer term, it must ensure full legal equality, including marriage equality for same-sex couples and recognition of rainbow families.

What’s your vision for the future?

Budapest Pride’s hope is that LGBTQI+ people in Hungary will finally be seen not as political targets, but as equal citizens. Our greatest concern is that change will remain at the level of symbolic gestures, while the everyday dignity, legal equality and safety of community members remain fragile. We are ready for dialogue, but we expect the era of rights-stripping policies to end, not just in communication but in law and institutional practice as well.

International solidarity has practical significance so that LGBTQI+ rights don’t fall off the agenda. It also means a great deal to see that we are not alone, and that European and international partners stand with us in the long-term work for legal equality. We expect European institutions and international civil society to monitor the situation, hold the Hungarian government accountable and support Hungarian civil society. If the landmark EU Court of Justice ruling is not implemented, there will be no real change.

Hungary must move forward towards full legal equality. Same-sex couples must be allowed to marry. Rainbow families must receive legal recognition. Age-appropriate knowledge about LGBTQI+ people must be included in education. So-called ‘normalising’ surgeries performed on intersex people and conversion ‘therapies’ must be banned. A modern strategy towards HIV and sexually transmitted infections is needed. And Hungary must adopt a national strategy that meaningfully addresses violence and discrimination against LGBTQI+ people.

None of this is radical. Research shows that society is much more open than years of government propaganda suggested.

CIVICUS interviews a wide range of civil society activists, experts and leaders to gather diverse perspectives on civil society action and current issues for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and do not necessarily reflect those of CIVICUS. Publication does not imply endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they represent.