It is always interesting to compare events. Last year the Baltic Pride, the annual march for LGBT rights, held in the Baltic capitals on a rotating basis, aroused many discussions in Lithuania, but when it takes place in the other Baltic capitals, we usually only see a photo or two. This year I had a chance to report from a similar demonstration in Budapest. The leading Lithuanian news portal Delfi published my article with photos.
I went to report on the march with a French colleague, who is fluent in Hungarian. With her press card, she could cross the fenced boundaries and interview counter-demonstrators. I understand Hungarian somewhat (after all, I lived here for a year), but I couldn’t ask questions on my own, so I merely listened and observed. There were many interesting characters in the counter-demo. When I got home, I depicted them in this comic. I found it quite interesting that the characters were exactly the same as in Lithuania – I guess elsewhere as well. Of course, the flying MP counter-demonstrator in Vilnius was more iconic than the kid who tried to jump the fence in Budapest, but these are details.
Budapest anti-pride
The next day I found photos, showing what they looked like (I could only observe them from behind a fence, because we came from the side of the Pride).
I quite liked drawing my own illustrations for blog entries, and I think I should do it again. On the blog, unlike in journalistic articles, I can express my attitude freely (of course, I don’t hide it, but I adhere to professional standards and waited with posting this until my article was off the front page).
I’ve been intensively learning to draw lately, which is useful when I can’t take photos or photography is not useful to illustrate my stories. This idea was inspired by a writer friend, who met an illustrator on a trip.