Thousands of Hungarians participated in the annual Budapest Pride march on Saturday in the blazing heat, pledging to continue the struggle against government LGBTQ rights policies that have garnered criticism from the EU.
The latest anti-LGBTQ policy approved by the administration of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the European Commission sued Hungary earlier this month over a bill introduced last year to restrict teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues in schools.
The rule was promoted by his administration as a measure to safeguard children, but human rights organisations claimed it discriminated against LGBTQ people, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it a “disgrace.”
As throngs marched through the capital carrying rainbow flags and umbrellas in temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, one Pride participant remarked, “I am a queer myself and it’s vital that we exhibit ourselves especially in a country where the political sentiment is like this towards LGBTQ people” (104 Fahrenheit).
After winning elections in April, Orban’s Fidesz-Christian Democrat administration asserts that LGBTQ rights and other social issues should be decided by national governments inside the European Union.
Since coming to office in 2010, Orban has credited some of his election success to taking a hard line against immigration and advocating social programmes that, in his words, are intended to protect traditional Christian values against Western liberalism.
In a speech earlier on Saturday in Romania, Orban stated that demographics, migration, and gender politics, together with the conflict in Ukraine and economic issues, were Hungary’s major difficulties.
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