Football Fans Join Pro-LGBTQ Protest At The Germany-Hungary Game

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In a bid to show unity for the LGBTQ community, spectators decided to have a rainbow-colored protest during the Germany-Hungary Euro 2020 football match held in Munich.

The UEFA had refused to allow the Allianz Arena to be lit up in rainbow colors, all because of an anti-gay law that was passed in Hungary.

In a show of protest, a football spectator ran onto the pitch wearing a German shirt while holding up a rainbow flag right before the game while the Hungarian anthem was playing.

At the same time, fans in the stands lifted and waved multi-colored rainbow flags during the group stage match between the two teams.

The members of the National Assembly, or Hungarian MPs, were in agreement when they voted to ‘ban the depiction or promotion of homosexuality to under-18s.’ The reason for the ban was due to a law against pedophiles.


Meanwhile, 13 EU states including Germany have condemned the new law, which forced the Hungarian Prime Minister, Vicktor Orban, to cancel his visit to the football match that was to take place on Wednesday, the 23rd of June according to German media.

Before the match, there was an ongoing campaign outside the Munich stadium to try and get as many of the 11,000 supporters watching the game to either wear stickers or carry flags. The attempt was coordinated by Christopher Street Day, a group that organizes annual LGBT parades across Germany during the July month.

This isn’t the first time UEFA has been criticized for blocking Munich from using rainbow colors in the stadium. Yet, the European football body explained that the reason why it blocked the request was due to the Hungarian political issues, as well as it being a “politically and religiously neutral organization.”

But in a statement posted on Twitter, UEFA placed a rainbow on its logo, but explained that the colorful logo was not meant to be a political symbol or statement, “but rather a sign of [its] firm commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society.”

Rather than use the rainbow colors, the Allianz stadium chose to light itself up in aqua blue, which obviously is considered uncontroversial for the football group.

According to one local artist in Hungary, she wrote a letter to the prime minister, explaining that his law was just wrong. She is also quite happy that the dispute between UEFA and Munich’s mayor is getting major and international attention.


Furthermore, the city’s well-known gay football members of Street Boys Munich, Christoph, Enrico and Maurice, say that UEFA’s choice to include a rainbow on its logo is a weak attempt to be inclusive. Christoph shared, “It’s a pink-wash,” which is like a ‘whitewash but with a cynical attempt to burnish gay-friendly credentials that was in fact a “lie”.’

Due to UEFA’s decision to ban the rainbow colors, a number of other stadiums in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Berlin, Wolfsburg and Cologne are just a few that plan to light up their stadium with tons of rainbow colors. Even German clubs like Stuttgart decided to show photos of rainbow flags before the match to show their support of Germany’s national team.

Even Germany’s biggest known companies, such as Siemens, BMW, and Volkswagen, took to their Twitter and Facebook accounts to post rainbow colors.

Since these events took place, Justice Minister of Hungary, Judit Varga, has rejected the condemnation of the EU members states’ anti-LGBT law, explaining it was based on “fake news” so to speak. She insisted that the law ‘didn’t deprive anyone of their rights nor discriminate against any member of society.’ She also got upset that none of the other countries involved bothered to get in touch with Budapest to question ‘the true meaning’ behind the law.

 

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