Thousands of people have attended Saturday’s (24 July) Budapest Pride march in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Advocates and allies lined the streets of Hungary’s capital to use their voices to protest Prime Minister Victor Orbán and the country’s new anti-LGBTQ+ law.
Last month, lawmakers passed legislation banning “content promoting gender change or homosexuality” within the school curriculum.
The bill has widely been compared to Russia’s “gay propaganda” law, which was passed in 2013, that bans disseminating “propaganda on nontraditional sexual relations” among Russians.
One Pride demonstrator told Reuters that the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation was an “outrage”, stating: “We live in the 21st century, when things like that should not be happening. We are no longer in communist times, this is the EU and everyone should be able to live freely.”
Boglarka Balazs, an economist who attended the march, referred to the controversial law as a campaign tool for Orbán and his government’s reelection.
“This is nothing more than a diversion that tires to tear the country apart. It is a provocation because of the elections,” she told Reuters.
Since the bill passed, the European Commission announced plans to take legal action against Hungary.
MEPs called the legislation “a clear breach of the EU’s values, principles and law” and last week urged the European Commission to pursue a legal case against Orbán’s government.
459 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favour of the resolution, with 147 against and 58 abstaining in Strasbourg. If the case is brought to the European Court of Justice, Hungary could face financial penalties.
#BudapestPride is about to start. Time to show the world that #Hungary is a great place and people here do not represent the government. 🏳️🌈 https://t.co/13bESwxcpf
— Viktória Serdült (@viktoriaserdult) July 24, 2021
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