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.
The upset should come as no surprise, of course, especially considering the conservative set’s vows of violence – and those gay bombings. Still, the ferocity of the anti-pride attacks are definitely cause for pause:
About 450 people took part in the march in central Budapest when extremists began throwing explosive devices, eggs, cobblestones and bottles at police and the marchers.
Police seized chemicals and Molotov cocktails from a six-member group waiting for the demonstrators in an uninhabited flat along the route of the march.
…
Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the extremists gathering around the fenced-off marchers in Heroes’ Square. The demonstrators could leave the scene in a corridor leading to an underground station.
Awww. It’s like an underground railroad for the homos – only there’s no true freedom for these men and women. A report out of Vienna last week found that gays in a third of European Union nations still face widespread discrimination. Wait, wasn’t that EU thing meant to bring equal rights?
The Hungarian government, however, isn’t taking this disturbance lying down. Saying he’s had “enough” of extremist violence, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány convened with the minister of Justice to formulate a full report of this weekend’s violence. What’s more, he’s calling for an anti-extremism national rally to be held on September 6th.
According to the prime minister, the far-right agitators falsely call upon patriotism, take Hungarian symbols away from the masses, and infringe upon freedom… Gyurcsány continued that what happened on Saturday has been going on for years, that extremists disrupt people’s right to self expression.
The prime minister stated that he has had enough, and if things continue as they do, people will be afraid to go out into the streets. He added that this is not a police, gay, Jewish or Gypsy cause, but one for everyone.
Well, that’s a step in the right direction, clearly.
How about we take this to the next level?
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CitizenGeek
At least the government is taking these idiots on.
Don
For the Jewish community it was Kristalnacht, for the African American community slavery,selma, equal rights, for latinos today, exploitation of workers, explotation of migrant workers, global destruction of latin americas finite resources including the rain forest. In the 60’s Kent State gunning down students during the Vietnam war.
Now, this in Hungary. The police and law enforcement should have preemptively stopped these homophobic anarchists. I don’t accept the statement the government finds this unacceptable.
They should have isolated and contained the thugs so that gay citizens could exercise their human rights to freedom of expresion and association.
Where is the outrage in the media ( NONE!!) Oh yes Madonna, is having another affair ( shocks the conscious).
If this was an attack on another group it would be news, but attacking fag’s is non newsworthy behavior.
I find this mindboggling and my hearts go out to the brave Hungarian’s who stood up to this attack, they are to be commended and if anyone knows how we can help , let me know.
Im so god dammed mad.
CHURCHILL-Y
Compare the Hungarian Government response to that of shall we say Jamaica or any other Caribbean or African nation. If this had occurred in one of those hell holes the police would’ve joined the right wingers in attacking the Homos and the Prime minister à la Bruce Golding of Jamaica would’ve accused the GLBT marchers as terrorists.
Paul Raposo
Kudos to PM Gyurcsany for standing up to those thugs and brown shirts.
Lost
Gay Pride?
That looked like a movie stage for Star Wars or something.
blake
Yes, leave it to Church-Nazi to spin this hateful attack into a slam against African-descended people.
What a douche bag.
Church-Nazi, why don’t you look into the support anti-gay forces have in Poland, where the President routinely spews homophobic remarks? Or, why not look at Russia where the violence against gays is supported by the government and the Orthodox Church?
Of course, you won’t mention anything because it goes against your racist views.
It’s always fascinating how you reviews to comment on the vicious anti-gay ways of white people, like Fred Barnes or Jesse Helms, but have plenty to say to spin an attack with anyone with African heritage. Pathetic!
blake
I’m sure the families of Matthew Shepard, Michael Sandy, and Lawrence King are grateful that the murderers of their children are white men. That must give them great comfort. The parents of Brandon Teena must also feel warm and fuzzy feelings that their child was raped and slaughtered by white men. Equally delighted at the thought of her child’s butchering by white men, Gwen Arujo’s mother must be praising Jesus.
Anyway, just pretend that European government’s don’t look the other way or participate in homophobic violence: http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/1562
– “But what is even worse than gay bashing is that in Moldova, police are active participants in gay bashing, so we have no where to turn for protection” says L.B., “In other countries, gay bashing is a crime and police are tasked with protecting the victims and bringing the gay bashers to justice. But in Moldova it is the opposite: Police themselves form groups who systematically attack gays with impunity.”
Just pretend that European officials don’t continue to say homophobic things:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/09/northernireland.northernireland?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews
Just pretend that the Catholic Church and members of the Anglican Church are not homophobic.
Yeah, Church-Nazi, nice how you ignore the GOP politicos like Fred Barnes who encourage the use of homophobia to win elections. But, hey, Barnes is white. As far as you are concerned, that makes it right?!
Jane
Seems like we have gone off on several tangents here. May I remind everyone that the story is about Budapest Pride and ultra-right wing Neo-Fascists, not about race or religion? (Okay, religion does have some part in it, as Hungary is a heavily Roman Catholic country, but far more secularized than, say, Poland.)
I’m an out lesbian, born and raised in Budapest. I currently live abroad, so I don’t have a first-hand view of the situation. However, I can tell you that the hideous and shameful displays of homophobia at this and last year’s Pride marches have a more complex background than the “God Hates Fags” picketeers in America.
While Fred Phelps’s demented army is specifically obsessed with homosexuals, the neo-Fascist demonstrators in Hungary hate anyone who does not fit their ideal of a white, Catholic, racist, ultra-right-wing Hungarian. They hate Jews, Gypsies, liberals, all foreigners and all people of color, not just us queers. Their agenda includes overthrowing the current, leftist Hungarian government and purging the country of all the above-mentioned people.
These people are motivated by a mythical longing for a white christian Hungary that never existed, sort of like Hitler’s fantasy of a pure Aryan Germany. They have their own small volunteer militia called the “Hungarian Guard” and their own nausea-inducing Web sites to keep them all charged up with hatred. They are not specifically anti-gay; they are anti-everyone else.
My partner and I are moving back to Budapest next year, and to be honest, I am not afraid of living there openly as a gay woman. In fact, these events motivate me to seriously consider working as an activist in order to help dispel the deep-seated ignorance that fuels all this hatred.
sziv
Readers might also be interested in knowing that the violence which occurred was organized through a website ran by the ultra-right wing Hungarian Nazi Party, http://www.kuruc.info. It called for violent actions against the LGBT community and had a countdown of the hours until the Budapest LGBT Pride Parade.
This website was hosted by first one, and then another, Texas based Internet Service Providers (ISPs), SoftLayer.com and Layeredtech.com via Databank.com. To their credit once they became aware that the content crossed the line from Freedom of Speech to promoting harm to individuals and resulted in two fire-bombings of LGBT businesses where people were hurt – and that Pride Organizers’ home addresses, phone numbers and photos had been posted with calls for violence, they took the website offline.
Now Kuruc.info has launched a Freedom of Speech campaign to raise funds and re-establish its attacks on the LGBT community via the internet. Supporters of the ISPs not allowing the perpetration of hate crimes on their servers are encouraged to write letters of appreciation to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
On a positive note, the LGBT community in Budapest is launching a brilliant response to the attacks by bringing together a broad based coalition of Civil Organizations to come together in a public demonstration to call for an end to this violence in Hungary. If you would like to support their efforts, donations can be made via PayPal at http://www.budapestpride.hu/donation.php.
Jane
Sziv, thanks for the encouraging info. I was thrilled to hear that kuruc.info was FINALLY shut down. It was especially incensing to know that the maintainers of this neo-Nazi website used the American laws for freedom of speech and expression for their own despicable ends. My partner and I are really looking forward to moving to Hungary and helping make it a better place for the LGBT community.