BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian legislation banning the availability of LGBTQ+ content to minors violates European Union law and breaches a foundational treaty guaranteeing respect for human rights and equality, the bloc’s court ruled Tuesday.
The European Court of Justice said that Hungary's legislation, adopted in 2021 by the nationalist-populist government of outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, “stigmatizes and marginalizes" LGBTQ+ persons, and fails to uphold the EU's prohibition of discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation.
Hungary’s law, which was widely criticized by human rights groups, prohibited the display of content to minors that depicts homosexuality or gender change, while also providing harsher penalties for crimes of pedophilia.
The government argued its policies, including a more recent law and constitutional amendment that effectively banned the popular Budapest Pride event, sought to protect children from what it calls “sexual propaganda.”
But critics of the legislation have compared it to Russia’s gay propaganda law of 2013, and say it conflates homosexuality with pedophilia. Last year, over 100,000 people took part in a Budapest Pride march in defiance of the government's ban.
In its ruling, the Luxembourg-based court found that, for the first time in an action brought against one of the EU's 27 member states, Hungary had violated Article 2 of the bloc's foundational treaty, which defines “the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”
It also found that the law breached rules relating to services in the EU's internal market, as well as data protection laws.
Orbán's government was defeated in a landslide election on April 12 by the center-right Tisza party and its leader, Péter Magyar, bringing an end to Orbán's 16 years in power.
Magyar's government is expected to take office in mid-May, and has pledged to pursue a more constructive approach to its relationship with the EU.
During his election campaign, Magyar was cautious about engaging in Orbán's culture-war debate over LGBTQ+ rights. But in his April 12 victory speech, he said Hungary would become a country “where no one is stigmatized for loving someone differently than the majority.”
FILE - Participants in the Pride march cross the Elisabeth Bridge in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, June 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mitch Marner isn't about to start bragging, to express any kind of feelings of vindication in proving wrong those who questioned and even doubted whether he could deliver at this time of year.
There has indeed been magic in Marner's play as he leads the Vegas Golden Knights into their Western Conference final series that opens Wednesday night at Colorado.
His 18 points led all NHL skaters through Sunday and includes possibly the goal of the year in Thursday's 5-1 close-out victory at Anaheim.
This production is what his hometown Maple Leafs expected when Toronto drafted him fourth overall in 2015. While Marner became one of the NHL’s top play-making forwards, he took the brunt of criticism for the Leafs failing to advance beyond the second round.
“I don't care what anyone says,” Marner said. “I've been in the league a long time now, so I'll focus on what I can control.”
That includes leading the Golden Knights to the NHL's final four.
“I think the media in Toronto is pretty big and they put a lot of pressure on the players,” Golden Knights wing Ivan Barbashev said. “He's showing completely different things over here. He's been scoring and making a lot of plays, so hopefully he stays the same way.”
Vegas has never been afraid to chase big names and it has a locker room full of such players. Acquiring Marner in a sign-and-trade was the splash deal of last year's offseason, reaching an agreement on an eight-year, $96 million contract.
This postseason is why the Golden Knights pursued him. They followed their 2023 Stanley Cup title team by getting bounced in the first round the following year and the second round last season.
Marner produced two goals and an assist in Game 6 of the opening series to eliminate Utah 5-1. He had a hat trick and an assist to take back home-ice advantage in Game 3 of Round 2 at Anaheim, and ended that series by setting the tone with a goal 1:02 into the Game 6 clincher that few players on the planet could execute.
William Karlsson began by hitting Marner in stride with a perfect stretch pass to spring the breakaway. But with Jackson LaCombe staying with Marner, he fought off the Ducks defenseman, turned his back to the goal and shot the puck between his legs to put Vegas ahead 1-0.
“His IQ is on a different level,” Barbashev said. “He plays defensively and is a 200(-foot) player. He does it all.”
John Tortorella, who became the Golden Knights coach with eight games left in the regular season, sees the same thing about Marner.
“When you're with him every day, you can see his habits," Tortorella said. "You can see the little things he does in the game. Other people see his goals and assists, maybe like the goal he scored the other night. I look at the small things. A lot of people don't realize how the small things turn to bigger things.”
Tortorella, like Bruce Cassidy before him, hasn't been afraid to use Marner in a number of ways, be it at center or wing, the first line or the second.
When the Golden Knights ran a five-forward power play, Marner was the quarterback at the top. Now with defenseman Shea Theodore in that spot with the top unit, the Golden Knights have deployed Marner down lower to better use his ability to score or help someone else find the back of the net.
“There’s even games where the other team carries the game, and they come out on top because of their patience and play-making ability, and Marner has a lot to do with that,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Power play, short-handed, five-on-five, he plays all situations and is dangerous in all of them.”
It's not that Marner didn't play at a high level in Toronto. He scored a career-high 102 points in the 2024-25 season, one of four times he topped 90.
He also produced 13 points in 13 playoff games last year and 14 points in 11 postseason games two years earlier.
But the Maple Leafs as a team didn't play up to expectations, and thus the deal to send Marner to Vegas. Now the Golden Knights are a series away from potentially competing in their third Stanley Cup Final in their nine years in the league, and the Maple Leafs failed to reach the playoffs but won the draft lottery.
Maybe there's another Marner in their future.
“I've always believed I'm a good player," Marner said. “I'm not thinking of anything, just go out there and try to play hockey.”
AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Centennial, Colorado, contributed to this report.
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Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mitch Marner, second from left, celebrates his goal with goaltender Carter Hart during the first period in Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mitch Marner, second from right, celebrates after scoring on Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal, left, during the first period in Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart, left, and right wing Mitch Marner congratulate each other after the Golden Knights defeated the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Friday, May 8, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
