Budapest Pride protests 2021 law limiting Queer media
Among the thousands that attended Budapest's 28th annual Pride were those who protested a discriminatory law from 2021 that bans portrayals of Queer relationships and gender transition in any content for minors.

Event organizer Jojo Majercsik said the law had no instant ramifications back in 2021 but has lately been enforced more frequently. Most recently, a Hungarian bookstore chain was fined $35,930 for putting copies of the graphic novel Heartstopper in a youth literature section without a closed package. Hungary's media authority also cracked down on a 30-second Pride advertisement in which two women touched foreheads. Deemed unsuitable for minors, it was only allowed to be broadcast between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government says the laws protect children from sexual propaganda.

On Saturday a distributed denial-of-service — an online attack that involves flooding a server with internet traffic to make a site unavailable — hit Budapest Pride's website, which was unavailable during the event. Meanwhile, counterprotesters gathered along the march route.

Director David Vig of Amnesty International Hungary said that Budapest Pride, unlike such events in North America and Western Europe, act more as a protest than a celebration.

Russian law banning gender-affirming care passes lower house of parliament
A draft of a law that would ban gender-affirming care and legal gender changes passed Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, on July 14. The draft is set to move on to the Federation Council and then go to Vladimir Putin to become law.

Once passed, Russians won't be able to change their gender on legal documents, and medical workers will be barred from providing gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy.

Additions to the draft banning Trans people from adopting children, as well as annulling marriages if a partner undergoes those legal or medical changes, were made during the second of three Duma readings.

The draft is expected to become law. Putin has said in the past that LGBTQ+ lifestyles are against traditional Russian values, and last December, additional restrictions were added to an existing law limiting portrayals of LGBTQ+ actions to children. The modified law imposes fines on LGBTQ+ actions and content in public, online, and in films or books.