On March 18th, Hungarian lawmakers passed a ban on Pride Parades and public events promoting LGBT ideology by a margin of 136 to 27. The ban amends the Child Protection Act passed in 2021, which forbade the promotion of LGBT ideology in middle schools and on primetime TV shows and resulted in an ongoing lawsuit against Hungary from the European Union.
Like the 2021 law, the new measure is intended to protect children from “early exposure” to LGBT ideology through public events that “promote and present gender nonconformity, gender reassignment, and homosexuality,” and mandates fines ranging from €15 and €500 for organizers or attendees.
After the vote, PM Viktor Orbán posted on X: “Today, we voted to ban gatherings that violate child protection laws. In Hungary, a child’s right to healthy physical, mental, intellectual, and moral development comes first. We won’t let woke ideology endanger our kids.”
LGBT activists both inside and outside Hungary are outraged. The organizers of Budapest Pride called the move “fascism” and insisted that they would hold their annual June Pride march. EU equality commissioner Hadja Lahbib stated: “The right to gather peacefully is a fundamental right to be championed across the European Union. We stand with the LGBTQI community—in Hungary & in all Member States.” LGBT protestors rallied outside parliament and blocked Budapest’s Margaret Bridge. The standard denunciations from “human rights” NGOs arrived on schedule.
Originally a commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots—when New York police raided a bar frequented by the homosexual community—Pride parades began as a protest against discrimination and a demand for equal rights under the law. By the 1980s, especially after the spread of AIDS, the events focused on political and social activism.
There is no doubt that the new ban brings up questions of competing rights. Activists have the right to assemble publicly. Children have the right to be protected from sexual ideologies seeking to influence them and, while it may seem almost quaint to say so in our hyper-sexualized Western societies, the right to be protected from sexually explicit displays and adult nudity in public places. That is precisely what Pride events have proudly and unashamedly become—and LGBT activists and their press allies defend these spectacles without nuance. Consider just a few examples:
At Toronto Pride in Canada, children are regularly exposed to simulated sex acts, adults wearing bondage and other fetish gear, and adult nudity, including a naked middle-aged man hopping past children in a Bugs Bunny mask.
A New York Drag March featured marchers chanting: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children.” Hundreds of other examples could be provided from every major Pride March in America.
At Oslo Pride in 2023, nude participants paraded in front of small children, some in leather “puppy” outfits. Similar instances have been reported in France, Germany, and almost every other European country, as well.
Even some LGBT people have become uncomfortable with what children witness at these events. As C.J. Liberty put it at Gay and Lesbian News:
Seeing the pictures of nearly naked blokes in dog masks being led by their masters on chains makes it harder to defend the position that it [Pride] isn’t all about sex. I would feel the same about any group or movement in society. Adult sexual activities and events based around that should take place in an indoor, adult-only setting… [Pride being] a mainstream, commercial family day does not mix with people displaying adult sexual kinks.
The mainstream media, on the other hand, openly defends nude fetishistic displays in front of children. Canada’s state broadcaster, the CBC, claimed that children seeing nude adult men was merely a good “discussion” opportunity. “Your kids will probably see boobs and penises,” the CBC affirmed. “There will be bodies of all shapes, sizes, and all states of undress.” One father planning to take his 3-year-old said that this was “all part of the appeal” and that it would help “my son’s … sexual development. And it’s never too early to think about that.”
