Viktor Orbán has long lost his sense of strategy and reality, but by trying to ban Pride, he scored the biggest own goal of his life. He failed to enforce his own unconstitutional law, sparked massive resistance, and inadvertently created the largest opposition force to date, a spontaneous, anti-regime demonstration made up of free citizens.
It became clear that it’s not fake messiahs from the right who mobilize people the most, but freedom itself. Nothing is more important than freedom. The opposite of dictatorship is not a “softer” dictatorship, but liberty. Every human being is born free and has the right to live as they wish as long as they do not infringe on the freedom of others.
The state has no right to dictate who someone is, how they identify, what they believe, or with whom they associate. A hypocritical tyranny may try to force people into norms used to justify its power, but it cannot crush their souls forever. People eventually rise up.
People stood up for themselves and for one another and in doing so, they showed that Hungary’s better face does not hate, it accepts; it does not ban, it celebrates. That face has now triumphed.
Budapest rose up against Orbán’s tyranny. People were joyful in their freedom, unbothered by the attempt to ban them, because power fears them. They are free, power is not. Hungary showed its more beautiful, kind, and peaceful face, standing in contrast to the culture of hate. Orbán’s regime just suffered a defeat, as people defied his ban and threats.
This was one of the biggest moral defeats of Orbán’s regime. Because this Pride march was not just a parade, it was a spontaneous and powerful protest against oppression, hate, and tyranny. The regime’s ban and police intimidation could not scare participants away. This day was not about fear but about courage, hope, and love.
It’s no coincidence that Péter Magyar did not participate in this honest, free, and joyful Pride parade, because he is not an honest, free, or joyful person, nor does he care for those who are. In his grinding, Gyurcsány-bashing post, he couldn’t even bring himself to say the word “Pride.” And so Pride defeated not only Orbán, but him too, making him irrelevant. He is not the voice of Hungarian resistance. Those who stood by the LGBTQ+ community with open hearts are.
They proved that Péter Magyar is not the future of Hungarian freedom that future lies with this spontaneous crowd that recognized the LGBTQ+ community’s right to live freely, to be equal, and to be embraced. These people are Hungary’s future, not another petty tyrant who, not coincidentally, found no place among them.
The same has happened in America. Bans and restrictions rooted in hate have mobilized record-breaking Pride events that doubled as protests against oppressive power. The same happened in Budapest. Another country, another world revealed its more beautiful face — free people standing against the lords of tyranny and hate.
Standing up for the most persecuted minority, the LGBTQ+ community, is not only a moral duty; it is the strongest expression of freedom. Everyone has the right to be who they are. Everyone deserves to live in freedom and without fear. Everyone deserves equal rights. No one should be stigmatized. Freedom is the supreme value above all else.
That freedom swept away the Orbán regime today, even if it still appears to be standing. Péter Magyar is not Hungary’s future. The future belongs to that community of free, kind, and happy people who accept themselves and one another, and who stand up for each other’s rights. In Hungary, the primitive, religiously dressed-up hate and tyranny have lost today.
By embracing and organizing Pride, Gergely Karácsony has become the most important opposition politician in Hungary. It was a mistake, for tactical reasons, to translate “Pride” into Hungarian and call it the “Day of Dignity,” but that attempt failed, fortunately, Orbán didn’t take the bait. He declared it was the same thing.
And so it remained Pride and that’s what made the victory complete.
