The Budapest Police Headquarters has banned a gay Pride parade in the centre of the Hungarian capital on Thursday.
The organisers wanted to hold the parade on a section of the Grand Boulevard and the Danube embankment between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The number of participants was estimated at several tens of thousands.
“The police, acting within their powers to regulate assemblies, prohibit the march from taking place at the specified location and time,” Tamás Térdek, head of the capital’s police department, said.
Thus, the head of the capital’s law enforcement agencies supported the position of the Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
However, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, who was elected from the opposition, said the parade would go ahead anyway, as it was a “municipal event” that did not require special approval from the authorities.
The reason for the police ban on the LGBT parade is amendments to the Hungarian Constitution and the law on assemblies, which were passed by parliament and signed by President Péter Szijjártó. The new provisions in the document place the rights of children “above everything else, except the right to life” and introduce a ban on public events that “demonstrate deviations from gender identity acquired at birth, as well as gender reassignment or homosexuality.”
At the same time, the document notes that there is no complete ban on such events, the amendments only restrict where they can be held. Thus, it is unacceptable to hold gay Pride parades in crowded places in the city centre, but they are permitted in remote, preferably restricted areas.
