Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
Budapest gay Pride festival gets under way
Change language:
The 22nd Budapest Pride festival of the gay (LGBTQ) community opened on Friday night.
At the opening ceremony, Szilvia Nagy of the organising Rainbow Mission Foundation said it was “not easy” to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer in Hungary, and recalled that it was in 2007 for the first time that Pride marchers in Budapest were attacked by violent “counter-demonstrators”. But “those of us here have not given up,” she asserted and called on participants to create their own freedom on July 8, when the festival closes with the traditional Pride March.
Author Lajos Parti Nagy said being LGBTQ was a public affair when “it is not allowed to be a private affair: when one is not allowed to kiss their sweetheart in public or get married”.
Parti Nagy voiced criticism of the government and said it “performs best at creating enemies”. “What is Brussels today can be gays tomorrow or anyone coming down the motorway where the direction of traffic is dictated by an audacious minibus”.
Budapest gay nightlife is very scattered in Budapest, due to the lack of gay bars. For gay and lesbian parties, Pride events in Budapest I recommend http://www.qalendar.hu