Hungary seeks to ban Pride and amend constitution to recognize only male and female genders

Hungary, led by anti-LGBTQ+ authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is seeking to ban the Pride celebration in Budapest and use facial recognition software to identify those who attend the event if it is held in defiance of the ban. And Donald Trump has emboldened Hungary to make the move, Hungarian officials say.

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Hungary is also considering a constitutional amendment that would say the nation recognizes only two genders, male and female, mirroring an executive order issued by Trump.

A bill to ban the Pride march was introduced in Parliament Monday, the Associated Press reports. It “would make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious ‘child protection’ legislation, which prohibits the ‘depiction or promotion’ of homosexuality to minors,” according to the AP. The country enacted that law in 2021.

The bill introduced Monday is likely to pass, as Orbán’s ruling coalition has two-thirds of the seats in Parliament.

Orbán, a close ally of Trump, had “hinted at banning the event in his annual state of the nation address” in February, Agence France-Presse reports. His chief of staff said Trump’s election as U.S. president had helped facilitate further anti-LGBTQ+ moves in Hungary.

“We believe that Pride marching through downtown, now that the U.S. ambassador can no longer lead it, should not be tolerated by the country,” Chief of Staff Gergely Gulyas told reporters at the time, according to AFP.

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David Pressman, the American ambassador to Hungary under President Joe Biden, resigned in January, a few days ahead of Trump’s inauguration. He had been a fierce critic of Orbán’s administration, with the criticism returned in kind.

A new ambassador has not been named, but Robert Palladino, a diplomat who served in the first Trump administration, is chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Hungary, leading it until an ambassador is chosen.

The “two sexes” constitutional amendment was introduced last Tuesday by Fidesz, the nation’s ruling party. The party also proposed an amendment “emphasizing the protection of children’s physical, mental and moral development over all other rights,” Reuters reports, and this could be used to target the Pride event as well.

Orbán has led Hungary since 2010, but his support may be eroding. He is up for reelection in 2026, and there is “a surging new opposition party posing the strongest challenge yet to his rule,” Reuters notes.