Thousands of Hungarians braved the heat in Budapest on Saturday to take part in the annual Pride, protesting the government’s control over public demonstrations by the LGBT community, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

“The Pride movement should be a pioneer of freedom of expression, recognition and equality, but unfortunately I have to say that in Hungary, like in the West, it is not customary to be proud of being gay,” commented Gergely Varga, a makeup artist. , one of the participants of the march.

“I think Budapest Pride is really liberating, but I think we’re still discriminated against on gray weekdays,” said designer Dani Mark.

Participants waved rainbow flags, danced and cheered as they marched through the center of the Hungarian capital.

Neither the organizers nor the government indicated the number of participants, but according to eyewitnesses, it was 10,000 people. Among the participants were US Ambassador David Pressman and numerous other diplomats.

On Friday, the embassies of the US, Germany and 36 other countries in Hungary called on Hungary to protect LGBT rights and abandon discriminatory legislation.

At the end of last year, the European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union because of the “law on child protection”. The commission argued that the law restricts young people’s right to information, thus violating a fundamental right in the European Union.

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