Official: Budapest city council to organize banned Pride event 🔄

On June 28, the Municipality of Budapest, in partnership with the Rainbow Mission Foundation, will hold the Budapest Pride event.

With this, Budapest is reviving its former tradition of celebrating freedom every June, commemorating the withdrawal of Soviet troops. This year’s Budapest Freedom Day celebration is entitled Budapest Pride, and numerous foreign guests—mayors of European capitals, members of EU member state governments, members of the European Parliament, and others—have indicated their participation. Budapest Pride is a municipal event in accordance with current legislation, which stands for freedom and equality.

The exact details of the event on June 28 will be announced by the organizers in the coming days.

Mayor Gergely Karácsony said that Budapest Pride is a celebration of joy and freedom, and its message is clear:

Everyone is entitled to the inalienable right of human dignity
No one in Budapest should suffer discrimination because of what they believe in, where they were born, and certainly not because of whom they love
In Budapest, the freedom of others is just as important as our own
Budapest is proud of its diversity, which it considers a value, as is the 30-year-old Budapest Pride event
Freedom and love cannot be banned.

Máté Hegedűs, spokesperson of Budapest Pride, said: “It is our constitutional right to gather peacefully, to be together, and to march for our human dignity and our fundamental rights. And that is what we will do on June 28, courageously, authentically, organizing our community. This fight is not only for the LGBTQ community, but for everyone. Together with Budapest, we will defend ourselves and those who are now afraid, those who are now silent, those who are now in danger. Civil society, Hungarian citizens. We will be the voice, we will be the action, we will be the determination.

Read here for more news about LGBTQ in Hungary

Top EU legal advisor: Hungary’s anti-LGBT law violates fundamental EU values

UPDATE

Fidesz: Mayor can’t decide alone on Pride

MTI – Fidesz Budapest representative Alexandra Szentkirályi said on Tuesday that the city’s mayor could not decide on his own authority whether “the bankrupt capital” can organise “another Pride parade”.

“Enough of this Pride madness,” she added. The Fidesz-Christian Democrat group leader in the city assembly said in a video posted on Facebook that she would raise the issue at a meeting of the assembly. “Most Budapest residents don’t like presenting adult sexuality to children openly on the streets,” she said, adding that the assembly should decide on the issue rather than an “arbitrary” mayoral decree. “Stop Pride; children’s rights come first in Budapest!” she declared.