Over 100,000 LGBTQ community members and allies marched in Budapest’s Pride parade today, in spite of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s efforts to ban the event.
In March, Orban’s Fidesz party passed anti-LGBTQ legislation prohibiting public events that allegedly “promote” homosexuality. But the gays refused to stand down.
More than 100,000 people marched in Hungary’s annual Pride parade in Budapest on Saturday after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ban on the event backfired, turning what is usually a low-key parade into a mass rally against his government. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/w…
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) June 28, 2025 at 1:42 PM
More from the Washington Post:
The law, adopted under the guise of protecting children, restricted the right of freedom of assembly and authorized the use of facial recognition technology to identify and punish participants in events that violate an earlier “child protection act” that outlawed displays of “divergence from self-identity corresponding to sex at birth, sex change or homosexuality.”
The legislation was clearly directed at Pride festivities, which have taken place annually in June in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, generally without incident since 1995.
Organizers of the event, however, refused to back down and immediately announced their attention to defy the ban.
Budapest’s liberal mayor, Gergely Karacsony, quickly stepped in with assistance by declaring this weekend’s festivities to be an official municipal event, renamed Budapest Pride Freedom, to commemorate the withdrawal of Soviet troops and Hungary’s full emergence from behind the Iron Curtain in June 1991.
The new law drew sharp criticism from European Union officials. Happy Pride, y’all!
️ Budapest celebrated its largest-ever Pride today. The march stretched for at least 3 km, drawing tens of thousands—if not up to a hundred thousand—people. The gov attempted to ban the event and set a trap for the rising party, Tisza, but it now appears to have backfired. pic.twitter.com/hr3aH77xES
— Tamás Matura (@tamas_matura) June 28, 2025
Orban: Budapest Pride is banned. Budapest Pride: Hold my beer. ️
The beginning of the crowd is already on the Buda side. The end hasn’t even started marching yet pic.twitter.com/iPltA5Jf4X — Viktória Serdült (@viktoriaserdult) June 28, 2025
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