Pride and left wing intertwined in a bid to gain some popularity

In line with the expectations of the international liberal mainstream, many left-wing politicians participate in the annual Budapest Pride, which has grown into a month-long series of events since 2018. The biggest event of the gay subculture and the LGBTQ community is enthusiastically supported by David Pressman, US Ambassador to Hungary, who played a key role at the launch of this year's Pride Month.

Like Gergely Karacsony, Bernadett Szel also spoke at the Pride in 2021. The former co-chair of the green LMP Party, who takes part in the parade every year, criticised the government, saying that the biggest threat to the oppressive power - which has no human face - is posed by free people living in peace with themselves and others. "I am convinced that the way they treat women in politics today stems from the same roots as the way they treat minorities. They don't want us to become visible, they don't want us to claim a place for ourselves, to stand up for ourselves and for each other. We appear strange to them. We are strange because we are different from them," she stressed.

David Pressman, the patron of homosexuals

The LGBTQ movement is also supported by the parliamentary group called For a Diverse Hungary - MPs for the LGBTQ Community, made up of lawmakers from left-wing parties, aiming to ensure that LGBTQ communities are not discriminated against and can live freely in Hungary. Also noteworthy is the lobbying work of the US Ambassador to Hungary, who has spoken out for the LGBTQ community in Hungary on numerous occasions since his appointment.

US Ambassador David Pressman also participated in the opening event of the 28th Budapest Pride festival. He delivered a lengthy speech criticising the Hungarian government, comparing the Child Protection Act adopted in 2021 to the Holocaust and the majority of Hungarians to mortar, whose silence keeps together the wall of hate. On the occasion of Pride Month, the diplomat, who has been in a same-sex relationship for 22 years, rallied well-known Hungarians who openly admit their identity - including Peter Ungar,  LMP Party co-chair, Laszlo Sebian-Petrovszki, party director of the Democratic Coalition, and Richard Barabas, Budapest district 11 deputy mayor of the Dialogue Party, to recognise those who work for the visibility, equality and human rights of Hungarians, he said.

Cover photo: Agnes Kunhalmi and Bence Tordai (Photo: Origo)