Published 07.47
Glitter bows, rainbows and love. The Pride parade marches through the streets of Budapest on Saturday.
– Unlike last year when we fought for our rights, it will be a regular celebration this year, says activist Ádám Kanicsár.
Most likely, many of the participants will be in good spirits as they parade through the Hungarian capital, decked out in all the colors and glitter of the rainbow, without fear of being caught by the police.
But the years when the rights of LGBTQ people, under the national-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, were erased one by one, have left their mark among Hungarians who identify as specifically LGBTQ.
– Fidesz (Viktor Orbán’s party) has stolen 16 years of my life, says LGBTQ activist and journalist Ádám Kanicsár, when he talks about the restrictions on the rights of LGBTQ people during Orbán’s time in power.
Ádám Kanicsár believes that the erosion of the rights of LGBTQ people has had an almost traumatic effect on those affected and that it will take time to heal.
The festival was banned
Last year’s festival was banned after Hungary passed several laws effectively banning public gatherings organized by LGBTQ groups. The police banned the event.
But despite, or perhaps thanks to, the ban, upwards of 200,000 people marched in the parade, according to the organizer’s own estimate.
Ádám Kanicsár believes that this year’s pride train will be much, much smaller.
– Unlike last year, when we fought for our rights, it will be a regular celebration this year, he says.
– Last year it was pride for real! Like in the 60s and 70s when LGBTQ people had to fight for their rights, he continues.
“Leave the bedroom of the Hungarians”
Budapest’s mayor, the liberal Gergely Karácsony, went against the government’s decision last year after finding loopholes in the law. According to him, it was the city, and not an LGBTQ organization, that was the organizer.
The authorities disagreed, charging him with organizing the event. But in April this year, the European Court of Justice found that Orbán’s law from last year violated EU law and the prosecution was scrapped.
The EU decision came nine days after Orbán was voted out in the parliamentary election, which the Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, won big.
After Magyar took power, he lifted the ban on the pride festival. And earlier in June, he took the opportunity to send a boot to his representative by telling Fidesz to “leave the Hungarians’ bedroom as soon as possible.”
