Protesters in Hungary block roads, bridges in opposition to new law banning LGBTQ+ Pride events

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Several thousand protesters blocked major thoroughfares and three bridges in the center of Hungary's capital on Tuesday in opposition to a recent law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts Hungarians' right to assembly.

The demonstration was the second within a week since Hungary's ruling Fidesz party used its two-thirds parliamentary majority last Tuesday to fast-track the law, seen by critics as the government's latest crackdown on the rights of the country's LGBTQ+ community.

Chanting “democracy” and “assembly is a fundamental right,” thousands of the demonstrators poured onto one of the city’s busiest roads, igniting colorful smoke bombs and blocking traffic. In the coming hours, they went on to blockade three of the city's bridges spanning the Danube, facing lines of police blocking their path.

One of the demonstrators, 26-year-old Paula Antalfy, said she believed the government’s recent steps to ban certain public events were “yet another step in the direction of dismantling democracy.”

“I feel like love should be free, and who you love is not a decision in any way,” she said. “That we would not be able to gather like this, as we do now, and stand in our own streets, in our own city, is something I just can’t agree with.”

Hungary's new law, which is reminiscent of similar restrictions against sexual minorities in Russia, amends rules on assembly to make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious child protection legislation, which prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors under 18.

Authorities may now use facial recognition tools to identify individuals that attend prohibited events — such as the popular Budapest Pride which draws tens of thousands each year — and can issue fines for violators of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).

Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has in recent years taken aim at the country's LGBTQ+ community, prohibiting same-sex adoption and — in a 2021 child protection law — banning any LGBTQ+ content including in television, films, advertisements and literature that is available to minors.

Orbán's party plans to adopt a constitutional amendment in April that will codify the ban on public LGBTQ+ events. His government argues that its policies are designed to protect children from “sexual propaganda,” but critics view them as part of a broader effort to scapegoat sexual minorities and mobilize his conservative base.

Last week, a spokesperson for the United Nations’ human rights commission said that the recent law “results in arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on the rights of LGBTIQ+ individuals to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and privacy.”

The statement drew attention to a part of the law which authorizes the government to use facial recognition technology to identify and fine participants of prohibited events, saying such tools “should never be deployed in a discriminatory manner through targeted surveillance of peaceful assemblies of LGBTIQ+ persons or other marginalized groups.”

Budapest Pride organizers, as well as Budapest's mayor, have vowed to go ahead with the city's Pride events, which are set to celebrate their 30th anniversary this summer. In response to the recent law, Pride organizers wrote: “This is not child protection, this is fascism.”

The organizer of Tuesday's protest, independent lawmaker Ákos Hadházy, called on Hungarians to continue taking to the streets until the government repeals the law. He told the crowd the government's measures to restrict the right of assembly and utilize surveillance tools against protesters was the start of “techno-fascism” in Hungary.

Benedek Lakos, a 27-year-old member of Budapest's LGBTQ+ community who attended the Tuesday demonstration, said he has not previously been active in expressing his opinion about actions taken by Hungary's government.

But the latest law, he said, had been “the last straw.”

"I feel now for a number of reasons that we have reached a level where, if there are no visible consequences for this (law) from the people, we can just start digging our own graves," he said.

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupying Liberty Bridge hold a banner reading "assembling is a fundamental right" as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe//MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators occupy Liberty Bridge as they protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly, in central Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

FILE - Participants march during the 28th Budapest Pride parade in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, July 15, 2023. (Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP, file)

FILE - A participant waves a rainbow flag during an LGBT rights demonstration in front of the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary on June 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, File)

Waving EU and party flags Hungarian demonstrators protest against the amandment of the assembly law banning the Pride in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Hungarian demonstrators protest against the amendment of the assembly law banning the Pride in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Independent Hungarian MP and co-organizer Akos Hadhazy addresses demonstrators protesting against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Waving EU and party flags Hungarian demonstrators protest against a law that effectively bans LGBTQ+ Pride events and restricts the right to assembly in the downtown of Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

MPs of Momentum protest with flares during the plenary session of the Hungarian parliament in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Boglarka Bodnar/MTI via AP)

Protesters confronted federal officers in Minneapolis on Thursday, a day after a woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

The demonstrations came amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump's administration dispatched 2,000 officers and agents to Minnesota for its latest immigration crackdown.

Across the country, another city was reeling after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon.

The killing of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday set off a clash between federal and state officials over whether the shooting appeared justified and whether a Minnesota law enforcement agency had jurisdiction to investigate.

Here's what is known about the shooting:

The woman was shot in her SUV in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where police killed George Floyd in 2020. Videos taken by bystanders and posted online show an officer approaching a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.

The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle draws his gun and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the officer gets struck by the SUV, which speeds into two cars parked on a curb before stopping.

It’s also not clear what happened in the lead-up to the shooting.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the SUV was part of a group of protesters that had been harassing agents and “impeding operations” that morning. She said agents had freed one of their vehicles that was stuck in snow and were leaving the area when the confrontation and shooting occurred.

No video has emerged to corroborate Noem’s account. Bystander video from the shooting scene shows a sobbing woman who says the person shot was her wife. That woman hasn’t spoken publicly to give her version of events.

Good died of gunshot wounds to the head.

A U.S. citizen born in Colorado, Good described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom." Her ex-husband said Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday and was driving home when she encountered ICE agents on a residential street.

He said Good and her current partner moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City, Missouri.

Good's killing is at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.

Noem said Thursday that there would be a federal investigation into the shooting, though she again called the woman’s actions “domestic terrorism.”

“This vehicle was used to hit this officer,” Noem said. “It was used as a weapon, and the officer feels as though his life was in jeopardy.”

Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and referred to Good's death as “a tragedy of her own making.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone when he described the shooting to reporters Wednesday. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had watched videos of the shooting that show it was avoidable.

The agent who shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Jonathan Ross has been a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured this summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.

Federal officials have not named the officer. But Noem said he was dragged by a vehicle in June, and a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross.

Court documents say Ross got his arm stuck in the window as a driver fled arrest in that incident. Ross was dragged 100 yards (91 meters), and cuts to his arm required 50 stitches.

According to police, officers initially responded to a report of a shooting outside a hospital Thursday afternoon.

Minutes later police heard that a man who had been shot was asking for help in a residential area a couple of miles away. Officers went there and found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds. Officers determined they were wounded in a shooting with federal agents.

Police Chief Bob Day said the FBI was leading the investigation and he had no details about events that led to the shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle’s passenger was “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who was involved in a recent shooting. When agents identified themselves to the occupants during a “targeted vehicle stop,” the driver tried to run them over, the department said. An agent fired in self-defense, it said.

There was no immediate independent corroboration of that account or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle’s occupants.

Trump and his allies have consistently blamed Tren de Aragua for being at the root of violence and illicit drug dealing in some U.S. cities.

Drew Evans, head of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Thursday that federal authorities have denied the state agency access to evidence in the Good case, barring the state from investigating the shooting alongside the FBI.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz demanded that state investigators be given a role, telling reporters that residents would otherwise have a difficulty accepting the findings of federal law enforcement.

“And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem,” Walz said.

Noem denied that Minnesota authorities were being shut out, saying: “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”

Dozens of protesters gathered Thursday morning outside a Minneapolis federal building being used as a base for the immigration crackdown. Border Patrol officers fired tear gas and doused demonstrators with pepper spray to push them back from the gate.

Area schools were closed as a safety precaution.

Protests were also planned across the U.S. in cities including New York, New Orleans and Seattle.

Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed.

Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather for a vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a motorist earlier in the day, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

People participate in a protest and vigil after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)