Summary
Hungary passed a new anti-LGBTQ+ law banning Pride events and allowing facial recognition to identify attendees, sparking large protests in Budapest.
Protesters blockaded the Margaret Bridge over the Danube, blocking traffic and ignoring police orders to leave. The law, passed 136-27, amends Hungary’s “child protection” legislation, which already restricts LGBTQ+ content.
Critics call it an attempt to scapegoat LGBTQ+ people and distract from economic issues.
Despite repression, support for Budapest Pride is growing, with many vowing to attend in defiance of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s crackdown.
These protests were basically spontaneous, since the government wanted to pass the law quickly leaving very little time before announcement and it being passed. In fact, it is technically unconstitutional, since they didn’t even wait to amend their own constitution to allow it before passing it. They will amend it though.
The point is, these people mostly heard at work that this happened and there will be a protest, and took to the streets the same afternoon, no preparation, no notice. Huge turnout for something that was barely organized.
The other special thing is that this crowd, and crowds nowadays are “bipartisan” by Hungarian standards, it is both liberals and nationalists out here. Memes saying “I’ve never been to Pride, this will be my first one” are going viral. When confronted by the police, the crowd sang the national anthem, the folk song “Spring winds bring the flooding water” and the nationalist revolutionary song Kossuth-nóta with the refraine being “Long live Hungarian freedom! Long live the homeland!” at them.
Here’s another picture from the protest, the signs say “I am trans, but still have a bigger dick than Orbán”, and - loosely translated because of idioms - “This would be a better country if you would go jack each other off instead of riling people up”.
this is modern poetry tbh, stealing this for my local groups
We’re chugging along with one amendment a month in the past 15 years to what is described as a “granite solid” “basic law”. We kinda don’t have a constitution since 2010 because IDK why.
Out of curiosity, what’s the literal translation?
“Hungary would be a better place if you didn’t beat out the fuse, but each other’s” - or “Hungary would be a better place if you’d beat each other’s instead of the fuse”.
By the way, OP accidentally overlooked the country/place translation, but I’m 100% sure they know, otherwise.
Boring explanation in the spoiler box:
spoiler
To jack off = to beat (it) out/off in Hungarian. E.g. “I beat out/off my dick to this picture of a daisy”.
To blow the fuse (…box?) = to beat out/off the fuse in Hungarian. Beat might not be the best translation, and it could be closer to ‘slam’ or ‘pop’ or something, but we use the same word (‘ver’ / ‘beat’) in both cases.
We also use the term ‘blow the fuse’ when talking about having enough of something that grinds your gears. Like, “I could still tolerate that ignorant knob, but when he started talking about all the doctors of the world conspiring, that blew the fuse for me. (‘beat out/off the fuse for me’)” - kind of when you lose it.
Interesting, thanks for the explanation! That is a tricky one to translate into English.