Hungary Prohibits Legal Changing Of Gender

Hungarian parliament, on Tuesday, passed a law that will prohibit Hungarian nationals from altering their gender legally, in the face of protests home and abroad.

The new law states that gender will only be defined as “biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes”.

Human rights activists fear that the new law could expose Hungarian transgender citizens to more discrimination, as it would become impossible for citizens to legally change the gender assigned at birth.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights organisation in Hungary, Hatter, has described the passage of the law as "sad and outrageous", adding that what it does is it turns a blind eye to the  “practical and human rights concerns raised by dozens of civil society organisations and international bodies.”

There are fears that there is a conservative agenda being pushed by the country's nationalist leader Viktor Orban.

Human Rights organisation Hatter said in a statement that it would work to legally fight the law, adding that “We will not give up the fight: we ask the president of the republic to send the law for review to the Constitutional Court."

The PM, earlier in May, jettisoned an accord aimed at fighting violence against women.

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The country, ever since PM Orban took office in 2010, has observed a wave of conservative ideals, with the Orban-led government banning the teaching of gender studies at universities in the country, with a keen focus on the upholding of Hungarian traditional values.