The speech of Dóri Rédai on the Budapest Dyke March

Hello Everyone! It’s so good to see you all! Such a beautiful crowd of lesbians and allies! Thank you all for being here, being visible, being loud!
 
I know that some of you have been concerned about safety on the streets of Budapest and at the Dyke March, because you may have heard about our homo- and transphobic government, you may have heard about how they are trying to silence us and deprive us of our rights and dignity. You may have heard about attacks against lesbians since the so-called child protection law was introduced last summer. This law, and all the hate-mongering politics of this government has made some people feel entitled to behave violently. So a special thank you for those who have been worried but still came to the March. Because this is exactly why we are here! To show that we are not afraid, we won’t be intimidated, we won’t go back to the closet, we will demand our rights and we will fight until we get them. 
 
We are not here only for ourselves lesbians or only for the LGBTQ+ community. We are protesting an authoritarian regime and sending a message to its political leadership. We are protesting for all the women who are now going to be humiliated and made to feel like murderers if they need to have an abortion. Some of them are lesbians. We are here for all the Romani women, who suffer from systemic poverty, discrimination and violence imposed on them by a racist regime. Some of them are lesbians. We are here for the refugee women who have been forced to leave their country because of male state aggression. We are here for teachers and healthcare workers – most of who are women, some of them lesbians – who are disrespected, humiliated and forced into poverty by this regime, while literally, lives depend on their work. We are here for all the young people whose sexuality is regulated by this regime, who are now deprived of information and education about sexuality. Some of them are lesbians. I repeat some of the conference participants’ call for radical solidarity. Radical solidarity. Being there for each other. I also call upon those straight feminists who are not here to reconsider your alliances. Because we are there for you, too.
 
The third EL*C conference in Budapest has been a historical event. I hope that all of you who were there enjoyed it and are taking something home from it. It was historical, though it may not make it into history books written by cisheterosexual white male middle-class historians. But it will become part of queer history, it will be long remembered and preserved in the archives run by lesbians.
 
Talking about history and recording events, I have to say that I deeply resent the lack of media attention the conference received. The so-called independent journalists in Hungary, who were informed about the conference, decided that it was not important enough to publicize. The same journalists were desperately trying to get into the World Congress of Families in Budapest some months ago, where the leaders of the anti-gender movement met and were cheering each other in their crusade against women, children, and LGBTQ+ people. Still, these journalists were not interested in our responses to that crusade. I suppose it’s not a coincidence that the last remnants of Hungarian independent media are male-dominated. Well, let me tell you, dear journalists, that you don’t know what you have missed. But you should know that by keeping silent about this conference, you have contributed to the perpetuation of the patriarchal system that tries to keep lesbians invisible. The media has enormous power to create reality, and you have been misusing this power by keeping the conference invisible.
 
So. Thank you again for being here, and let’s send a loud message together to all the neofascist white cisheteropatriarchal men who are abusing their power and intruding our lives with the excuse that they were elected to do so. 
 
LESBIANS RESIST!
 
 
Video by Mari Takács about the Dyke March: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcMCNzN-dYk

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