Police 'Welcomes' Austrian supporters of the 16th Budapest Pride

• A bus with supporters of the Budapest Pride 2011 from Austria was detained by the police. 
• Two of the Austrian supporters were detained for ca. 6 hours.

The 16th Budapest Pride was a good 'temperature check' of nationalism and homophobia in the Hungarian society. The Parade itself took place on June 18, 2011 in Budapest, and this time it was an ambitious attempt to hold it without fences, on a longer route and without secure evacuation of teh Pride participants by metro after the end of the Pride.

Demonstration in front of the Serbian Embassy in Budapest

In the evening of 29 September the coalition of anarchist movements of Budapest represented by comrades from Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Ukraine, as well as LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) activists from various countries - Hungary, USA, Serbia, Austria, Russia etc. made a short demonstration in front of the Serbian embassy in Budapest. The major aim was to protest against state repression and governmental policies in Serbia.

The reasons - case studies - were:

a) imprisonment of 6 anarcho-syndicalists in Belgrade:
5, as it turned out later, 6 activists were accused without any evidence in a solidarity action (related to December events in Greece and murder of 15 y.o. anarchist) that took place on 25 August at the Greek embassy in Belgrade. They may get 3-15 years of prison: http://asi.zsp.net.pl/;

b) cancellation of Pride Parade in Belgrade one day before its date:
it was proclaimed that any demonstration is prohibited in Serbia from the date when the Pride Parade should have taken place, although the neo-nazi demo still happened that day.

The demo was supposed to be a short one, as it was not registered.


First, two big transparencies were put on the fence of the embassy


then the info-board of the embassy was covered by flyers (http://anarhobud.blogspot.com/2009/09/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html);


after some messages for the support of LGBT activists in Belgrade were put on stone parts of the fence;


a letter to the ambassador of Serbia in Hungary was put in the mail box together with some flyers. The letter aimed at attracting attention to the cancellation of Belgrade Pride Parade and asking for involvement of the Serbian authorities in LGBT issues and protection of LGBT rights;


finally, the rest of flyers were distributed among the participants (ca. 30) of the demonstration and thrown on the territory of the embassy and around.

This was a peaceful action aiming at attracting authorities' attention to current policies of the Serbian state and calling them to take action and protect rights of the groups that are victims of state repression - anarcho-syndicalists and LGBT activists.

Additional information: http://www.anarhobud.blogspot.com/

Budapest Pride Parade 2009

This year's Pride Parade in Budapest was calm and rather boring, as fewer people showed up compared to the previous year. Indeed, Pride Parade 2008 was rather violent with neo-nazis and average observers, apparently homophobes, throwing eggs, tomatoes and bottles into the participants of Pride Parade 2008.

>> By the way, this violence is caused by the government headed by ex-prime minister Gyrcsany (who visited the Pride Parade 2009!) as before 2007 and 2008 the Pride Parade was peaceful and boring for the media. <<

The only positive thing about 2008 Pride was high attention of the media and increased security (Not all cops are bastards after all) this year. Not only Andrassy avenue, where the Parade took place this year, but also parallel streets were closed and surrounded by fences. Basically, a big part of central Budapest including metro was closed.

>> The righ to free assembly is a basic constituinal right. But in gulyas democracy of Hungary this right has to be protected by hundreds of policemen and rows of fences. <<

Crowds of people were to be observed outside the fences, apparently not as many as previous year. Moreover, this day was a football match between Hungary and Sweden and most probably most hooligans were already at the stadium by the end of the Parade. The Parade participants turned out to be hard nuts for those willing to attack them, as police was escorting them even after the end of the Parade at Deak sq. and Blaha Lujza sq., as all the participants were recommended to go to Blaha Lujza by metro.
This decision was based on previous year's accident when at the end of Pride Parade it turned out that the participants were trapped because most of neo-nazis gathered at the end point of the Pride 2008, Heroes' sq.

To the Pride 2009 itself: there were a number of groups and individual people from both Hungary and abroad. The opening speeches were delivered by Juris Lavrikovs, Paata Sabelashvili (ILGA Europe) who welcomed the participants and shared tehir thoughts of the importance of the Pride. There were two cars with sound systems, a froup of people carrying a rainbow flag, and a number of smaller groups including Amnesty-Hungary (the yellow group) and the pink-black bloc.

Overall, it was just another good opportunity for queer people to claim for their right for equality and for their supporters to express their solidarity. Hopefully, the peacefulness of Pride Parade 2009 will become a good tradition and the tolerance in Hungarian society to queer people will grow to the level that no fences will be needed in the future.

Long Live Pride Parade in Budapest!

>> More pictures from the Pride Parade 2009 are to be found here <<

>> Hungarian Media:

http://www.origo.hu/itthon/20090905-meleg-meltosag-menete-fokozott-ellenorzes-korlatozasok.html http://nol.hu/belfold/hangosan_tragarkodo_csoport_a_kordonokon_belul <<

Pride Parade in Budapest!

Event type: March
Assembly: 1pm Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Meeting Place: Budapest, end of Andrássy st. at Hősök sq.

Opening Speeches: 1:30pm

Start of the Gay Pride March: 2pm End of March: 3:30pm, Erzsébet tér.

Route of the March: end of Andrássy út (between Rippl-Rónay and Munkácsy utca) – Kodály körönd – Oktogon – Opera – Erzsébet tér

For further information visit: http://budapestpride.hu/en/

Speakers: Juris Lavrikovs, Paata Sabelashvili (ILGA Europe)

Come to Budapest and support the rainbow!!!