Status: 07/24/2021 6:48 p.m.
The annual Gay Pride Parade took place in Budapest. Because of the anti-LGBTQ policies of Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban, the German and US embassies, among others, support the event.
The prelude to this year’s Gay Pride Parade: With high summer temperatures of 32 degrees, thousands of people gathered to march through downtown Budapest. According to the organizers, they want to send a signal against hatred and attempts by “power-hungry politicians” to intimidate members of sexual minorities.
Non-heterosexual people in Hungary must continue to face discrimination – also and especially from the government.
Image: AFP
Instead of protecting minorities, the Fidesz government is using laws to turn LGBTQ people into lepers in their own country. The green German MEP Terry Reintke spoke out at the opening rally against the discrimination of sexual minorities by the Orban government and added: “This goes beyond Hungary. This is a European question and we must fight together against hatred , against the ‘pedophile law’ and against an authoritarian setback in Europe. Let us stand together as Europeans. ”
International support
This year’s Gay Pride Parade was politically supported by around 40 different foreign institutions, including the embassies of the USA, Great Britain and Germany. They are concerned by recent events that threaten the principle of non-discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to a joint statement.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared on state radio on Friday: The delay in the disbursement of more than seven billion euros from the EU Corona aid fund to Hungary was part of an “ideological war” with Brussels.
Budapest Pride 2021 takes a stand against Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ law
Christian Limpert, ARD Vienna, daily news 8:00 p.m., July 24th, 2021
Orban prefers to forego billions in aid
Orban had a regulation published in the Hungarian legal gazette late on Friday evening with the content: Hungary does not want to accept EU funds from the aid fund if Brussels made this dependent on the abolition of the law restricting information on homosexual and transsexuality.
Hungary’s opposition parties accuse the Prime Minister of trying to divert attention from the real issues with his planned referendum on the law that has already been passed. Parliamentary elections will be held in the spring of next year.
“Obviously the government is trying to initiate this topic as the main topic of the elections,” explained Tamás Dombos, managing director of the LGBTQ organization Háttér, before the start of the Gay Pride Parade, “so that one does not talk about the corona crisis or the crisis in the health care system says that we are not talking about the independence of the courts or about the dire situation of the rule of law – which the EU also criticizes. It is obviously a political game. ”