Kudos to Hungary's beleaguered LGBTQ+ community for the massive Pride march they held through the streets of Budapest this weekend.
Toronto and other Canadian cities too saw huge Pride Parades, but the difference is that here such expressions of same-sex affection and trans and other queer lifestyles are allowed, even encouraged.
In Victor Orbán's Hungary, LGBTQ+ rights have been severely curtailed over the last decade or so, culminating in a law passed just a couple of months ago that explicitly "allows" cities to ban Pride marches, supposedly in the interests of protecting the nation's children and "family values".
Well, that didn't happen. Indeed, the March turned into a mass anti-government rally in the run-up to a crucial national election next year. Ignoring the potential for facial recognition technology and huge fines, and explicit warning from Orbán's justice minister that "the Pride parade is a legally banned assembly", an estimated 100,000 revellers and protesters took over the streets of the nation's capital, with the blessing of Budapest's radical Green Party Mayor Gergely Karácsony.
Are the fascist-adjacent days of Orbán and his henchmen numbered? It would be nice to think so. Paradoxocally, the main opposition to Orbán comes from the Tisza party, which has deliberately ignored LGBTQ+ issues in the country, describing them as a "trap" set by Orbán, in an attempt to gather a more broad-based opposition to Orbán's Fidesz party.
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