Key facts
- A Hungarian gay couple hopes for an adoption breakthrough after Prime Minister Peter Magyar pledged to amend adoption laws.
- The previous law required single applicants to gain ministerial approval, effectively banning gay couples from adopting.
- Bence Lakatos and Jozsef Vanyovszki have been trying to adopt since 2021.
- Lakatos was approved as a single adoptive parent in August.
- A June survey showed over half of Hungarians favored rolling back LGBTQ rights curbs, and two-thirds supported gay marriage and adoption.
A Hungarian gay couple, Bence Lakatos and Jozsef Vanyovszki, are hopeful for a change in their long-standing adoption efforts following Prime Minister Peter Magyar's commitment to revise legislation that had effectively barred same-sex couples from adopting.
Under a law passed in 2020 by former leader Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, single individuals seeking to adopt required approval from the family affairs minister, a process that had amounted to a de facto ban for gay couples. Lakatos and Vanyovszki have been attempting to adopt since 2021 without success until Lakatos was deemed fit to adopt as a single parent in August.
Magyar, who ousted Orban in April, announced on Saturday that his government would amend the restrictive legislation. A June survey by pollster Median indicated that more than half of Hungarians would support rolling back Orban's curbs on LGBTQ rights, with two-thirds of respondents in favor of gay marriage and adoption.
Lakatos and Vanyovszki, who married in Denmark in 2016, noted that while they experienced an unspoken inclination against their adoption bid from social services, the potential legal changes feel significant. Lakatos expressed hope for full marriage equality, which he believes would eliminate further difficulties and rights violations for gay couples.