One year ago they marched in record numbers, risking fines and facial recognition technology to challenge Viktor Orbán and his government’s escalating crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. On Saturday, Hungarians will again take to the streets for Budapest Pride, this time in a march marked by the country’s sweeping political changes. The event, which is expected to unfold peacefully after police gave it the green light, will be a rallying cry of a community that has resisted all efforts to silence it, said Petra Buzás, part of the organising team. “This year’s Budapest Pride March is particularly important because it is about hope, caution and perseverance all at once,” said Buzás. “Budapest Pride’s hope is that LGBTQ people in Hungary will finally be seen not as political targets, but as whole citizens.” The comments hint at the turmoil that continues to linger after Orbán’s 16 years in power. As the nationalist leader sought to portray himself as the champion of traditional Christian and family values, he led a determined crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights, culminating in a law – the first of its kind in the EU’s recent history – that sought to ban Pride events. Bolstered by a wide range of civil society groups and the city’s mayor, Budapest Pride went ahead anyway last year, with more than 200,000 attenders turning it into a show of force for freedom, equality and the right to assemble. The resounding display of defiance against Orbán’s government was, in some ways, a harbinger of what was to come: about 10 months later, Orbán’s Fidesz party was ousted from power as Péter Magyar and his Tisza party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. Nearly two months after Magyar took power with promises of “regime change”, many in the LGBTQ+ community continue to reel from the