Millions of people across the globe took to the streets to mark Pride celebrations over the weekend, with many defying government crackdowns on LGBTQ+ communities. In Turkey, police arrested over 50 people Sunday ahead of a banned Pride march in Istanbul.
In Hungary, Saturday’s march drew an estimated 100,000 people in what is being described as the largest LGBTQ+ Pride celebration in Hungarian history. The peaceful gathering came as an act of defiance against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Reka Eszes: “It is this year that the situation got so toxic and hungry, including in Budapest, that now we need to make our voices heard a little more loudly, I think, definitely peacefully, but we need to be present and need to be out in the streets.”
Here in New York, an estimated 1 million people joined Pride celebrations over the weekend. As the gatherings wound down Sunday night, two teens were shot and injured near the historic Stonewall Inn, site of the 1969 uprising that launched the LGBTQ+ rights movement. No arrests have been made.