Hungary Plans to Push Pride Back into the Closet

Hungary’s populist right-wing government has declared that it will no longer “tolerate” public Pride events, insisting they should be held indoors.

Government Announces Constitutional Amendments

Last week, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, told reporters at a government information session that the administration planned to amend the constitution to prioritise the needs of children.

When asked whether the proposed amendment could result in a ban on Pride events, Gulyás acknowledged that it could lead to a conflict between “the right to assembly and children’s right to healthy development,” which needed to be clarified.

He then unequivocally stated, “There will be no Pride in the public form in which we have known it in recent decades,” adding, “We believe that the country should not tolerate Pride marching through the city centre.”

According to a website post from the Office of the Prime Minister, Gulyás further revealed that the amendments would also “define gender as biologically male or female.”

Budapest Pride Vows to Resist

In response, the organisers of the Budapest Pride March defiantly insisted that the event would go ahead as planned on 28 June. They accused the government of using the LGBTQ community to deflect attention from real challenges facing the country.

“Using the LGBT community for political purposes is a cheap act. We will not be anyone’s scapegoat. Those who organise Pride in Hungary or stand up for themselves and each other in any way are patriotic, dedicated, and persistent citizens who want to improve their country at all costs,” they said.

“They have tried to ban our march numerous times – this time they will not succeed either,” asserted Budapest Pride.

“Pride is a demonstration: if necessary, twenty people, if necessary, tens of thousands, but it will happen. We are fighting not only for the LGBTQ community but also for every Hungarian person, so that everyone is free to protest, express their opinions, and stand up for themselves!”

Declining LGBTQ Rights in Hungary

While homosexuality is legal in Hungary, and same-sex couples have some protections under anti-discrimination and cohabitation laws, the country’s 2012 Constitution restricts marriage to being between a man and a woman.

In recent years, the environment for LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary has worsened. In 2021, the government passed so-called “child protection” legislation that restricts exposing children to any content about LGBTQ+ people or issues in the media and in schools, arguing that it would be harmful. The law also equates promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion with promoting paedophilia.

In May 2020, Hungary banned transgender and intersex people from legally changing their gender or sex assigned at birth. Two years earlier, a Hungarian production of the Elton John stage musical Billy Elliot was forced to shut down after a newspaper article accused the show of being ‘gay propaganda’.