Kira Herdman

Welcome to another edition of State Of The World. Let’s get started.

Tens of thousands defy Hungary’s ban on Pride in protest against Orbán

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest in defiance of the Hungarian government’s ban on Pride, heeding a call by the city’s mayor to “come calmly and boldly to stand together for freedom, dignity and equal rights”.

Jubilant crowds packed into the city’s streets on Saturday 28th June, waving Pride flags and signs that mocked the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, as their peaceful procession inched forward at a snail’s pace.

Organisers estimated that a record number of people turned up, far outstripping the expected turnout of 35,000-40,000 people.

“We believe there are 180,000 to 200,000 people attending,” the president of Pride, Viktória Radványi told AFP. “It is hard to estimate because there have never been so many people at Budapest Pride.”

The mass demonstration against the government was a bittersweet marking of Budapest Pride’s 30th anniversary; while the turnout on Saturday was expected to reach record levels, it had come after the government had doubled down on its targeting of the country’s LGBTQ community.

Yet again proof that LGBT people will not be silenced

Pedro Pascal says he called out JK Rowling because “bullies make me f**king sick”

In April, actor and passionate trans ally Pedro Pascal expressed utter repulsion at Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s recent social media post celebrating an anti-trans decision by the U.K. Supreme Court.

Naturally, there was backlash. A recent profile of Pascal in Vanity Fair discusses how “some tried to frame it as a man trying to bully a woman into silence,” despite the fact that Rowling, herself, has emerged as one of the world’s most prominent anti-trans bullies.

At the time, Pascal referred to Rowling’s glee over the ruling – which said that trans women should not legally be considered women based on the 2010 Equality Act – as “Awful disgusting SH*T” and “Heinous LOSER behaviour.”

The actor told Vanity Fair that for a little while after the backlash, he felt like “that kid that got sent to the principal’s office a lot for behavioural issues in public schools in Texas feeling scared and thinking, What’d I do?”

He also said he “agonised” over whether his public support for trans rights was actually helping.

“It’s a situation that deserves the utmost elegance,” Pascal said, “so that something can actually happen, and people will actually be protected. Listen, I want to protect the people I love. But it goes beyond that. Bullies make me f**king sick.”

Pascal has long been outspoken in support of his sister, Lux Pascal, who is a trans actress and activist. He recently posted a photo on Instagram that declared, “A world without trans people has never existed and never will.”

We need more allies like Pedro Pascal

Labour MP criticised Park Run for Trans Inclusivity

Yet again Labour shows its true colours when an Labour MP, Johnathan Hinder who is Labour MP for Pendle and Clitheroe in Lancashire, criticised Park Run, a non competitive Sunday run around a local park, for being transgender inclusive in the House of Commons on Thursday 3rd July.

He asked the Secretary of State for culture, media and sport, Lisa Nandy “what discussions she has had with sports governing bodies on inuring that they are compliant either the Supreme Court judgment in the case of For Women v. The Scottish Ministers”.

In response to Hinder’s question, Nandy said: “We have discussed the ruling with Sport England and UK Sport. It obviously has profound implications for sport as a whole, and those organisations are currently considering the implications for their own guidance.

“We are keen to support them in that, but my hon. Friend will know that national governing bodies set their own policies for who can participate in domestic competition.”

Hinder followed up, asking a second question: “More than two months after the Supreme Court clarified the law, there remains a very long list of sporting bodies which are denying fairness to women and girls.

“This includes Parkrun and, remarkably, sports like weightlifting and wrestling. The mind boggles.

This just shows how damaging the Supreme Court Ruling has become to transgender people in the UK