Widely varied response to Pride Parades in Istanbul, Budapest, Frisco
Police cracked down hard in Istanbul, observed threateningly from the sidelines in Budapest and handed out rainbow flags in San Francisco, demonstrating a widely varied approach by the authorities.
Istanbul/New York (dpa/AP) - Police in Istanbul detained at least 50 people at Sunday's Pride march, including four lawyers, the Turkish lawyers' association CHD stated in a post on X.
They accused the police of brutal behaviour against the activists, who were planning to participate in the LGBTQ Pride parade. Events such as Pride have been banned in Turkey for years.
This year, the governor of Istanbul, Davut Gül, wrote on X ahead of the planned gathering that calls for demonstrations by "marginalized groups" were directed against "social peace, family structure and moral values" and would not be permitted.
One of the city's main venues for protests, celebrations and rallies was blocked off and several metro stations were closed by police early on Sunday.
Activists nevertheless took to the streets to protest, sometimes in small groups at various locations in the city centre.
The detained are expected to be referred to court on Monday, said the lawyer association.
Police action expected in Budapest
In Budapest, independent parliamentarian Akos Hadhazy predicted record-breaking fines could follow the Hungarian capital's biggest-ever Pride Parade.
Police had deployed vehicles with facial-recognition cameras at the event attended by more than 200,000 people, he posted on his Facebook page. Police did not intervene directly in Saturday's parade.
"The next few days will show that the cameras are capable of," Hadhazy predicted.
National authorities had officially banned the 30th annual LGBTQ Pride parade in advance, citing recent changes to a public assembly law pushed through by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government. The legislation allows police to prohibit gatherings that “promote non-heterosexual lifestyles.”
The organizers of such events could face up to a year in prison. Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony of the LMP, a liberal and green party, put himself forward as organizer for this year's event.
But in the United States, the monthlong celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride reached its rainbow-laden crescendo Sunday as huge crowds took part in jubilant, daylong street parties from New York to San Francisco.
Pride celebrations typically weave politics and protest together with colourful pageantry, but this year’s iterations took a decidedly more defiant stance as Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have sought to roll back LGBTQ+ friendly policies.
Queer Joy in Frisco
The theme of the festivities in Manhattan was, appropriately, “Rise Up: Pride in Protest.” San Francisco’s Pride theme was “Queer Joy is Resistance,” while Seattle was simply “Louder.”
Lance Brammer, a 56-year-old teacher from Ohio attending his first Pride parade in New York, said he felt “validated” as he marvelled at the sheer size of the city’s celebration, the nation’s oldest and largest.
“With the climate that we have politically, it just seems like they’re trying to do away with the whole LGBTQ community, especially the trans community,” he said wearing a vivid, multicoloured shirt. “And it just shows that they’ve got a fight ahead of them if they think that they’re going to do that with all of these people here and all of the support.”
In San Francisco, Xander Briere said the LGBTQ+ community is fighting for its very survival in the face of sustained attacks and changing public sentiment, particularly against transgender people.
“We’re slowly rolling back the clock, and it’s unfortunate and it’s scary,” the program specialist at the San Francisco Community Health Center said. “It feels like the world hates us right now, but this is a beautiful community celebration of resistance, of history to show the world that we are here and we are not going anywhere.”
Manhattan’s parade wound its way down Fifth Avenue with more than 700 participating groups greeted by huge crowds.
The rolling celebration passed the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar where a 1969 police raid triggered protests and fired up the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The first pride march, held in New York City in 1970, commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The site is now a national monument.
Meanwhile, marchers in San Francisco, host to another of the world’s largest Pride events, headed down the California city’s central Market Street to concert stages set up at the Civic Center Plaza. Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Toronto, Canada, were among the other major North American cities that hosted Pride parades Sunday.
Several global cities including Tokyo, Paris and Sao Paulo, held their events earlier this month while others come later in the year, including London in July and Rio de Janeiro in November.
Since taking office in January, Trump has taken specific aim at transgender people, removing them from the military, preventing federal insurance programs from paying for gender-affirming surgeries for young people and attempting to keep transgender athletes out of girls and women’s sports.
“We have to be visible. We have to come together. We have to fight. Our existence is trying to be erased,” said Jahnel Butler, one of the community grand marshals at the San Francisco parade.
Peter McLaughlin said he’s lived in New York for years but has never attended the Pride parade. The 34-year-old Brooklyn resident said he felt compelled this year as a transgender man.
“A lot of people just don’t understand that letting people live doesn’t take away from their own experience, and right now it’s just important to show that we’re just people,” McLaughlin said.
Gabrielle Meighan, 23, of New Jersey, said she felt it was important to come out to this year’s celebrations because they come days after the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark June 26, 2015, ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Manhattan also hosted on Sunday the Queer Liberation March, an activism-centered event launched in recent years amid concerns that the more mainstream parade had become too corporate.
Marchers holding signs that included “Gender affirming care saves lives” and “No Pride in apartheid” headed north from the city’s AIDS Memorial to Columbus Circle near Central Park.
But companies more reserved this year in US
Among the other headwinds faced by gay rights groups this year is the loss of corporate sponsorship.
American companies have pulled back support of Pride events, reflecting a broader walking back of diversity and inclusion efforts amid shifting public sentiment.
NYC Pride said earlier this month that about 20% of its corporate sponsors dropped or reduced support, including PepsiCo and Nissan. Organizers of San Francisco Pride said they lost the support of five major corporate donors, including Comcast and Anheuser-Busch.