Budapest Pride

Good morning. 

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love it here.  So much has happened to make it amazing. I have met wonderful new friends and had so many incredible experiences. 

Budapest Pride was very different and very cool. The gathering point was at Parliament and I went with my new friend (and airbnb host) Santiago and my other new friend David. There was music, speeches and then the parade march started. The pride festivals that I’ve been to were all very different, they were just businesses and organizations showing their support with floats and overpriced drinks after.  In this town the people are the parade. There were no overpriced vendors for food or drink. The entire route was blocked off and secured. This was amazing. Very little protest. Lots of people. The only bad thing was that I spoke to a lot of local gay guys that were not going to the parade — they sounded like I did when I was 20. They didn’t understand the point of pride, why they needed a parade when the people of Budapest don’t like it. It brought back a lot of memories for me. 

I can tell you now, from my understanding, why pride is important. It brings about change. Only when people are forced to confront something will they accept it. Change comes through acceptance.