Protect Budapest Pride from this illegal ban!
Steve Taylor, Head of Secretariat at Copenhagen Pride and former board member of European Pride Organisers Association
The decision of the Hungarian parliament to approve legislation to ban Pride in Budapest and elsewhere in Hungary is an affront to the rights of every LGBTQIA+ person, and it is illegal.
The bill, put forward by the ruling Fidesz Party, is the latest in a long line of attempts by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to reduce or withdraw the fundamental rights that our community rightly expects. He is a Kremlin puppet, always keen to mirror Putin’s attacks on his people, and this legislation in Hungary is the same as Putin’s anti-propaganda legislation that has since been copied by Georgia and Turkey among others.
At the root of the legislation is the fiction that LGBTQIA+ people are a danger to children, and so is teaching children about us. This is always at the root of the ‘anti-propaganda’ legislation and similar untruths are used to suggest that drag artists are a danger to children too. An alternative narrative suggests that we want more rights, or better conditions, or to be given some other advantage over ‘straight’ people. And these fictions aren’t reserved for the old ‘eastern bloc’ countries: there are some fanatic groups trying to promote them here and elsewhere in western and northern Europe.
Within the European Union, Orbán is currently the only leader to be undermining LGBTQIA+ equality and human rights to this extent and in this way. I say currently, because just as Orbán follows Putin, surely some other European leaders are excited by this legislation.
The reality is that these leaders have learned nothing from history. In June, it will be twenty years since the Mayor of Warsaw banned Pride in the city. Despite the ban around 2.500 people showed up and marched. The organiser, Tomasz Bączkowski, challenged Poland in the European Court of Human Rights claiming that the ban was a breach of articles 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court agreed, ruling against Poland that attending or organising a Pride event is a fundamental right under the freedom of assembly and freedom from discrimination. Since that judgment, the case of Bączkowski v Poland has been used dozens of times to educate anti-LGBTQIA+ mayors and politicians that their attempted ‘ban’ on Pride is illegal. And in the majority of cases the bans have been overturned or ignored.
Many of the attempted bans have been challenged by the European Pride Organisers Association, the international group for Prides in Europe. I was a board member for eight years, and in early 2022 we visited Budapest to work with the Budapest Pride organisers and local civil society organisations to understand what they needed and how the European Pride movement could support. Their answer was short and to the point: create attention in your own countries and tell your politicians what’s happening. We have tried to do that in Copenhagen Pride by bringing Budapest Pride organisers to our Pride and to talk to the Danish government. But we can and must do more.
Budapest Pride on Saturday 28 June will be the thirtieth anniversary of the first Budapest Pride, and also of the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. These anniversaries – coupled with the twentieth anniversary of the illegal Warsaw Pride ban – are stark reminders of how far we have come but how quickly we can slip back. And if you really want to help, there are three things you can do.
First, come to the Protect Budapest Pride demonstration outside the Hungarian Embassy in Charlottenlund (Strandvejen 170, nearest station is Ordrup) at 17.00 on Monday 24 March. (You can easily take your bike on the S-train from any S-train station in Copenhagen to Ordrup, except at Nørreport between 15:00 and 17:30.)
Second, write to your Member of the Folketing and ask them to put pressure on the Hungarian government to revoke this illegal legislation, and protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBTQIA+ people.
Third, Budapest Pride ask you to consider attending Pride on 28 June. The presence of international participants gives real strength to the organisers but also makes it more difficult for police to effectively prevent the event from happening, although remember to always follow travel guidance from the government). You can also donate to Budapest Pride at https://paypal.me/budapestpride.
Sorry, there is a fourth: tell your friends, your colleagues, your family. Remind them of the fun times they had at Copenhagen Pride and tell them that Pride is being banned less than a ninety minute flight from here. Remind them that all we want, for LGBTQIA+ people in Denmark, in Hungary, and the world over, is the same for everyone. The same treatment, rights, access to education and healthcare and services, and the same access to public space as everyone else.
Denmark must take a principled stand for LGBTQIA+ equality and human rights at home and abroad, and challenge the spread of these dangerous narratives, and stand up for equality, decency and human rights. Denmark’s Presidency of the EU from July is the perfect opportunity to drive this agenda.
Photo: An original rainbow flag sewn by Gilbert Baker is displayed outside the Hungarian Parliament in January 2022. It had previously hung in Copenhagen City Hall during WorldPride in 2021.
