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Gay adoption in Hungary could be heading for a significant change after a same-sex couple who have spent five years trying to become parents finally received some good news. But equality has not arrived just yet.
Bence Lakatos and Jozsef Vanyovszki have been trying to adopt a child since 2021.
The Budapest couple have been together since 2011 and married in Denmark in 2016. Hungary does not recognise same-sex marriage, although it does recognise registered partnerships for same-sex couples.
For years, their hopes of becoming dads appeared to be going nowhere.
Then, in August 2026, something changed.
Lakatos, a special-needs teacher, was formally deemed suitable to adopt as a single parent.
It does not yet give the couple equal joint parental rights. But after years without progress, it represents a potentially important step — both for them and for the wider debate around gay adoption in Hungary.
Why is gay adoption in Hungary restricted?
Same-sex couples in Hungary have not been able to apply jointly to adopt.
Before 2020, however, a gay or lesbian person could apply individually as a single prospective parent.
That route became much harder after legislation introduced under Viktor Orbán’s former government required single applicants to receive approval from the minister responsible for family affairs.
Reuters reports that the requirement effectively brought adoption by gay people to a halt, because same-sex couples relied on one partner applying individually.
For Bence and Jozsef, it meant years of waiting.
Their case began moving again following Hungary’s change of government earlier this year.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar (picture on the left) said in September that his government would change the adoption system, arguing that decisions about whether someone is suitable to adopt should be made by qualified professionals rather than politicians.
That promise is significant.
But it is important to be precise: Hungary has not yet introduced equal adoption rights for same-sex couples.
What has actually changed for the Hungarian couple?
In August, authorities deemed Bence Lakatos suitable to adopt as a single applicant.
His partner Jozsef is not being recognised as a joint applicant under the current process.
So while headlines about a possible breakthrough are justified, the legal situation remains unequal.
If the couple eventually welcomes a child through the existing system, Bence would initially hold the recognised parental status rather than both men automatically becoming equal legal parents.
That is why the wider question of LGBTQ+ adoption rights in Hungary remains unresolved.
The couple has said that full legal equality, including marriage equality, would remove many of the additional complications same-sex families continue to face.
Hungary’s government says adoption rules will change
Magyar announced on 12 September that his government intends to reverse the 2020 arrangement that placed single-parent adoption decisions in the hands of a minister.
He said adoption decisions should instead be made by professionals able to assess what is best for a child.
The announcement forms part of a broader period of change in Hungary’s LGBTQ+ policy.
The government has also submitted legislation seeking to remove previous restrictions on LGBTQ+ content accessible to minors after the European Union’s top court found that aspects of Hungary’s former rules breached EU law.
But the adoption reform itself still needs to move from political commitment to legal reality.
Until that happens, prospective LGBTQ+ parents are still operating under the existing system.
Public attitudes towards gay adoption in Hungary are changing too
There are signs that Hungarian public opinion may be more supportive of LGBTQ+ family rights than the country’s recent laws suggest.
A Median poll conducted in June, reported by Reuters, found that around two-thirds of respondents supported marriage and adoption rights for gay people.
More than half also supported reversing LGBTQ+ restrictions introduced under the previous government.
Public polling does not change the law by itself, of course.
But it provides useful context for a country where LGBTQ+ rights have been one of Europe’s most closely watched political and legal issues.
Five years of waiting to become dads
Behind the legislation, court decisions and political announcements is something much simpler.
Two people want to become parents.
Bence and Jozsef have spent five years navigating a system in which their relationship cannot currently be treated in the same way as that of a married opposite-sex couple seeking to adopt.
Now, for the first time in years, they appear to be moving forward.
It is not yet equal gay adoption in Hungary. It is not marriage equality. And it does not automatically mean that a child will soon be placed with them. But after five years of waiting, Bence being approved as a prospective single adoptive parent gives the couple something they have had very little of during this process: a genuine reason to hope.
