Celebration turned into chaos at Budapest's gay pride Saturday. At least ten people were hurt and forty-five arrested after gay activists and right wing haters came together on the Hungarian town's historic streets.

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Budapest's gays are going to have a complicated pride. Not only are they currently fearing for their lives after two bomb attacks, but revelers will now have to contend with anti-gay activists, who have been given a permit to march alongside the pride parade.

Far-right activists György Budaházy and László Toroczkai made an online appeal on kuruc.info for "Hungarian patriots" to go to Oktogon in Budapest on 5 July to demonstrate against this year's gay pride event.

"We will not tolerate foreign perverts of whatever colour forcing their alien and sick world onto Hungary," they wrote on the website.

The Rendszerváltó Fórum (System Change Forum) has been given permission to demonstrate on the same day and along the same route as the Gay Pride parade.
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On its website the organisation says that it is organising a parade of what it describes as "healthy and morally acceptable people" to show that Hungary's future is secured by "productive pair relationships, reproducing and well-functioning families".

Budapest Police spokeswoman Éva Tafferner said that the police will do everything in its power to prevent attacks on homosexuals and clashes between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators.

Somehow we doubt that…

Things are heating up in Budapest. And not in a good way.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Magnum gay sauna was was attacked.

And the gay rights group Patent is worried that the police are not providing adequate protection to gay establishments and the LGBT Festival as promised earlier.

Four petrol bombs were thrown into the sauna. The perpetrators are said to have called the sauna before the attack, just as in the case of the gay bar that had been bombed last Friday, to check if there were people inside, a Patent spokesperson said..

Well, at least they were courteous enough to check in, right?

This is the second attack on a gay establishment in two weeks. A gay bar was bombed just last week, and police swore they'd be more vigilant in protecting the gays. Activists, however, doubt their commitment, and they're especially worried because Budapest will host a queer film festival later this week.

Budapest's police chief just loves to rain on a lavender parade.

Dr. Gábor Tóth declared last night that he and his team won't allow the city's gay pride. Why? Because it will interfere with traffic - or something like that. And the homos ain't having it and activist groups released a joint statement decrying the "good" doctor's edict:

“The march is planned to proceed in one of the central streets of Budapest, Andrássy, the site of several earlier LGBT marches and other demonstrations,” the joint statement said.

“In our opinion and experience dating back several years, the march that takes up half of the broad road does not hinder the light Saturday afternoon traffic to an extent that would warrant its banning. Thus the reason given by the police seems only a pretext to make the march impossible, similar to Poland or Russia.

In other words, Tóth's decision amounts to homophobic bullshit.

Hungary's recently founded neo-Nazi group may have to close up hateful shop. Budapest's prosecutor filed a request to ban Magyar Garda, which regularly rails against gays, Jews and Roma.

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said the group was guilty of generating fear among minority groups, specifically the Roma, who make up 5% of the Hungarian population.

"Freedom of association cannot get in the way of another's rights or freedom," he said.

Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany once described the politically-connected group as "the disgrace of Hungary and Hungarian democracy". And the rest of humanity.

• Focus on the Family, Southern Baptist Convention and other conservative groups (pictured above) are already pleading their case to the American Psychological Association, which will be conferring on reparative therapy. The groups penned a letter reading, "We believe that psychologists should assist clients to develop lives that they value, even if that means they decline to identify as homosexual." These people have some fucked up value systems.

• Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky thinks anti-pride homophobes are ""intolerant, primitive and cowardly." Word up. Oh, and his party, The Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), want a parliamentary coalition against homophobia. Double word up.

• L'Oreal-owned Garnier plays hair politics. And pay fine for playing said hair politics.

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