Tens of thousands of Hungarians filled the country’s capital Saturday to protest a constitutional amendment that would allow the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, including Pride celebrations.
But the “Gray Pride” march — which saw demonstrators uniformly clad in drab colors for what one participant called a “perfect display of what sameness looks like” — wasn’t enough to sway Victor Orban’s populist Fidesz party.
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Parliament passed the repressive legislation known as the Assembly Act earlier today, 140 to 21.
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Ahead of the vote, opposition politicians and other protesters attempted to block the entrance to a Parliament parking garage by zip-tying themselves together, the AP reported. They were removed by police.
The Assembly Act declares that a child’s rights to moral, physical, and spiritual development supplant any right other than the right to life, including peaceful assembly.
Like Russia, its ally in a politically motivated campaign against the “degenerate West,” Hungary has instituted “gay propaganda” laws prohibiting the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors.
The amendment codifies a law passed in March that bans public events held by LGBTQ+ people, including the Pride events.
Orbán and Fidesz “have been dismantling democracy and the rule of law” for the past 15 years, “and in the past two or three months, we see that this process has been sped up,” said Dávid Bedő, a lawmaker with the opposition Momentum party who participated in the attempted blockade.
He said that as Orbán’s party lags in the polls for the 2026 elections behind a popular new challenger from the opposition, “they will do everything in their power to stay in power.”
“This whole endeavor which we see launched by the government, it has nothing to do with children’s rights,” said Dánel Döbrentey, a lawyer with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. He called the appeal to Orban’s far-right base “pure propaganda.”
Like the American president’s “gender ideology” executive order, Orban’s new amendment also codifies law that recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
It’s “a clear message” for transgender and intersex people, Döbrentey said: “It is definitely and purely and strictly about humiliating people and excluding them, not just from the national community, but even from the community of human beings.”
Along with transgender citizens, the amendment denies the existence of intersex people.
The Assembly Act also unleashes Hungarian security forces to monitor unsanctioned political events with facial recognition technology.
“One of the most fundamental problems is its invasiveness, just the sheer scale of the intrusion that happens when you apply mass surveillance to a crowd,” Ádám Remport, a lawyer with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, said.
“More salient in this case is the effect on the freedom of assembly, specifically the chilling effect that arises when people are scared to go out and show their political or ideological beliefs for fear of being persecuted,” he added.
Saturday’s “Gray Pride” peace march, organized by Hungary’s satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party, was the largest protest to date opposing the now-passed constitutional amendment. Participants marched behind a banner reading “Illiberal Pride.”
Banners mocking Orbán and Fidesz read “being uniform is cool” and “listen to your heart, death to colors.”
Samuel Tar, who joined the demonstration with grey-clad friends, said of LGBTQ+ people: “I would strip them of their right to assembly because they are all criminals.”
“They would like to express themselves, which is very harmful,” he told Reuters. “Only I should be allowed to express myself, no one else.”
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