The Hungarian Parliament passed a bill that bans people from legally changing their gender on official documents. The law, proposed by the ruling right-wing Fidesz party, passed by 134 votes to 56.
The new law requires that the national registry must record an individuals’ ‘sex assigned at birth’, and stipulates that this cannot be changed at a later date. This effectively ends any opportunity for gender recognition for transgender and intersex people, who will no longer be able to obtain documents in accordance with their gender identity.
Rights groups have said that the bill “pushes Hungary back towards the dark ages and tramples the rights of transgender people”. Advocates fear that it will lead to increased discrimination against the community, especially as Hungarian daily life requires people to show their identity cards frequently. Trans people will also not be able to choose a name that fits with their identified gender, as Hungarian law requires first names to be chosen from a list kept by the country’s Academy of Sciences, which is sorted according to gender.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has increasingly used anti-LGBT rhetoric as part of a perceived culture war against anyone who does not fit into its definition of a “traditional family”. The country recognizes legal unions for same-sex couples, but the Fidesz party opposes the legislation of same-sex marriage. Last year, the speaker of parliament, an Orbán ally, compared gay couples that adopt to pedophiles.
With the passing of the new legislation, the backlog of people waiting for the legal procedure to change their registered sex will all be rejected, along with any new applicants. Because the emphasis will now be on “sex at birth”, there are mounting concerns that the new law could be used to target trans people who have already legally changed their gender.
In recent months, Hungary has faced immense international scrutiny over the ‘rule by decree’ powers granted to Orbán during the coronavirus pandemic. EU leaders have warned that the passing of rash laws threatens to undermine the rule of law and democracy in the country.
However, Orbán’s administration insists that it will not prevent anyone from expressing their identity, stating: “In no way does the relevant section of the bill that some people criticize prevent any person from exercising their fundamental rights arising from their human dignity or from living according their identity, just as the state cannot normatively instruct anybody what to think.”
The Háttér Society, a Hungarian trans rights group, said on Tuesday that the law violated international human rights norms and went against the case-law of the European court of human rights, as well as previous rulings of the Hungarian constitutional court.
Image Source: New Statesman
