Hungary has proposed to amend its constitution to guarantee that children will be raised with the gender identity that corresponds to their biological gender. Justice Minister Judit Varga submitted the draft amendment to parliament on Tuesday.
The draft amendment ensures that children are given the right "to identify as the sex they were born with" and to be raised "based on our national self-identification and Christian culture," according to The Guardian.
The government is proposing the amendment to protect Hungary's children "from new, modern ideological trends in the Western world" that "raise doubt about the creation of the male and female sex, and endanger the right of children to have healthy development."
The said amendment also touches on marriage and family relationships, saying marriage is the foundation of a family. Furthermore, it emphasizes that "The mother is a woman and the father is a man." In the proposed amendment, homosexual couples will not be allowed to adopt children.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said the constitution of Hungary should ban "gender propaganda" as a measure to protect children, according to Reuters. He added that LGBT couples should not be allowed to adopt children because family is "a sacred notion." He reasoned that children's right to healthy development is more important than LGBT couples' desire to have a child.
The proposed draft amendment is in line with Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-LGBT stance. Orban and his political allies are steering toward the establishment of Christian values in society through legislation, which rights groups and the LGBT community claim are political moves to gain support for the 2022 election.
In May, the parliament voted to ban gender changes for transgender people. The new law states gender is based on a person's primary sex characteristics and chromosomes at birth.
Changing one's gender or name legally is no longer allowed under the legislation. The transgender community claims the ban on sex reassignment would increase discrimination against LGBT people, particularly when Hungarians are required to show their ID regularly, such as when getting a bus pass.
A ban on gender changes also means transgender people will not be able to choose a name according to the gender they identify with. By law, first names are chosen from a list from the Academy of Sciences, and these names are classified according to gender.
Last week, Orban announced his support for the Reformed Church, saying that being a nation of church builders is something Hungary can be proud of "at a time when churches are being torn down." He talked about the renovation of churches and the building of new ones under his administration.
Forty-seven structures had been constructed for Reformed churches, while 1,124 had been renovated. All in all, 3,000 churches had been renovated and 130 new structures had been built. Orban emphasized the government and the church have worked together to accomplish these.
Earlier this year, he strongly opposed a children's book that had homosexual characters. He reminded the publisher that there is a "red line" that should not be crossed. He added that releasing such a book was "an act of provocation." He told the book publisher to "leave our children alone."
