Thousands stand up for Budapest Pride in courageous protest against Viktor Orbán -TGN

Thousands of LGBTQ+ people and allies attended the Budapest Pride event on Saturday, July 15. (Getty)

Thousands of LGBTQ+ people and allies proved that the spirit of Pride is still alive in Hungary when they headed to the 28th annual Pride event in Budapest on Saturday (July 15).

The community came together to celebrate Budapest Pride against the backdrop of increasingly hostile legislation for LGBTQ+ citizens in Hungary.

Before the City Park march began, Pride organizer Jojo Majercsik publicly condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for legislation he passed in 2021 banning depictions of homosexuality to those under 18.

Talking to the Associated Presssaid Majercsik: “You can now see how the propaganda law passed two years ago is being applied in practice and how the public discourse has become angrier.

“It is now clear how they are trying to limit the rights of LGBTQ people in the media world, in the world of movies, movies and books.”

He cited several instances of media censorship against LGBTQ+ content as a sign of the government’s stance on the community, including a national bookseller who was fined approximately $36,000 for openly displaying Alice Oseman’s queer graphic novel. Heart stopper in the section of children’s literature.

Opposition to this anti-LGBTQ+ agenda was made abundantly clear during the march, which ran through the Hungarian capital.

A protester said Reuters that the Pride movement was supposed to be a “pioneer of free speech” but that acceptance in the European country was waning.

“Unfortunately I have to say that being proud of being gay is not as accepted in Hungary as it is in the West,” said make-up artist Gergely Varga.

Among those in attendance was US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, who had hosted an LGBTQ+ Family Pride picnic at his official residence earlier in the day.

After the march, Pressman wrote that he was “proud” to represent the US alongside Hungarian LGBTQ+ activists to “advance human rights for all Hungarians”.

His participation came just days after his embassy and several others signed a joint statement decrying Orbán’s far-right rhetoric.

More than 60 different embassies and cultural institutes from around the world denounced the “acts of violence, incitement to hatred, harassment, stigmatization and discrimination” against Hungarian persons based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

“We emphasize the inviolability of human dignity, the right to freedom of expression and information, the right to private family life and the right to non-discrimination for all,” the joint statement said. Remarkable, Israel refused to sign.

EU member states have also acted with ongoing legal proceedings that could threaten Hungary’s status in the union.

Countries such as France, Belgium and Germany have joined legal action, arguing that the censorship law for LGBTQ+ – known as the ‘Child Protection Act’ – violated several EU human rights laws and their values.

Amnesty International Hungary Director David Vig described Pride events in Hungary as more clearly about protesting compared to the celebratory nature of many Western European and North American events.

“This is really a human rights demonstration,” Vig said. “This is for social acceptance and this is for equal rights, because in Hungary these are not guaranteed.

“We are second-class citizens in many areas of public life.”