Marchers Defiant as Nationalists Attack Budapest Gay Pride March

At least 49 arrests were made and 10 people injured on Saturday during a gay pride march in Budapest, Hungary as nationalists and neo-Nazis attacked marchers and riot police who had assembled to quell the anticipated violence.

According to the Budapest Times, "Far right activists had been called to arms weeks in advance via extremist websites, and a massive police presence was in place to keep the expected angry protesters away from the gay marchers. Two-metre-high metal barricades had been erected along both sides of Andrassy út to keep agitators out of the path of the parade. The participants in the parade - well over a thousand members of gay, lesbian and transsexual groups, as well as sympathisers - were fully expecting the attacks. They wore plastic raincoats and carried multi-coloured umbrellas as eggs, tomatoes and other missiles rained down on them. Rioters turned on the police at a number of locations. Shortly after 4pm, the police had to disperse gangs armed with groceries, bottles and stones as they attempted to intercept the gay marchers at Oktogon. A police van was set ablaze in the melée, and tear gas and water cannon were used to clear the way for the parade. Cordons were set up to prevent people from approaching Andrássy út from side streets."

Bloomberg reports: "Parade-goers carried rainbow-colored umbrellas and signs carrying slogans such as 'Jesus taught us to love. Why do you hate?' The truck at the head of the parade carried two men who acted out a mock marriage with a female officiant. Their black suits became caked with egg yolks as the parade progressed. Gabor Szetey, a former state secretary in Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's cabinet who announced he was gay one year ago, said Gay Pride Day was no different from Hungarian Pride Day in an address to parade participants. 'Hungary, which is a European democracy, must accept people who are different,' he said. 'We can't choose whether we are gay, Roma or Jewish, but we can control our own destinies.'

A video report from the BBC, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Photo of Gay Hungarian Couple Wins World Press Photo Award

"Couple targeted in anti-gay violence wait for medical help, Budapest, Hungary."

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AFTER THE JUMP, the photo which won World Press Photo of the Year...

"American soldier resting at bunker, Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, 16 September" by Tim Hetherington, UK, Vanity Fair.

Check out the rest here.

(via jockohomo)

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Hungary Gay Pride Lifted by Coming Out, Marred by Violence

The streets of Budapest, Hungary grew tense over the weekend as a crowd reported at 2,000 marched in the city's annual Gay Pride parade. A group of protestors threw mineral water, eggs, and sacks filled with sand at the marchers, injuring some. The violence lead to the arrest of eight people

Caboodle reports: "The counter-demonstrators followed the procession of some 2,000 gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transvestites and their supporters on three trucks and on foot from Heroes' Square to the Danube. The situation grew more tense at 6 p.m. when the parade got stuck outside the Buddha Beach bar on the Danube, because no one had the key. Marchers and counter-demonstrators were jammed together on Közraktár utca, but police restored order...

...Gays were attacked in several places in the hours following the procession. A German man received the worst blow in Pipa utca in the Ninth District, when assailants struck him on the head with a beer bottle."

Gays in Hungary were given extra support in the lead-up to this weekend's Gay pride festival when its first elected official, Gábor Szetey, a member of the Socialist Party, came out at the opening of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Film and Cultural Festival.

Said Szetey: "My name is Gábor Szetey. I am the personnel state secretary of the government of the Republic of Hungary. I believe in God, love, freedom and equality. I am Hungarian and European. I am an economist and a personnel leader. I am a partner, a friend, sometimes an opponent. And I am gay."

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