Thousands celebrate Pride in Budapest following anti-LGBT legislation

Thousands of Hungarians participated in a Pride parade Saturday in protest of the government’s new anti-LGBT legislation, according to a report from Politico.

The Hungarian Parliament in June passed legislation that bans the distribution or content in schools that officials believe “promotes” homosexuality or gender transition. Students under the age of 18 may not be shown any content, including advertisements of this nature. The law was supported by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party. 

However, on Saturday around 30,000 people, including members of the Hungarian Parliament, paraded through Budapest to celebrate the country’s LGBT community and challenge the new laws, which have been condemned by the European Commission.

“In the past two years, we’ve had a government attack against the LGBTQI community, a lot of hate speech and also adoption of restrictive legislation when it comes to transgender rights, adoption, and most recently, a Russian-style propaganda law,” Tamás Dombos, board member of Háttér Society, a Hungarian rights group, told Politico.

He added, “A lot of people came to show their support and to show that not everyone thinks like our government. It feels really nice that so many people turned up.”

Many countries, including the United States, signed a joint statement of support for the Hungarian LGBT community, which shared by the Canadian government.

“On the occasion of the 26th Budapest Pride Festival, we, the undersigned embassies and cultural institutes, express our full support for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) community and their rights to equality and non‑discrimination, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and freedom from violence,” the statement, released on July 19, reads.

Earlier this month, the European Commission took legal action against both Hungary and Poland for recently enacted policies targeting the LGBT community. At the time, the Commission said that it was launching infringement procedures over actions in both countries. 

The countries have two months to respond to the legal move.