As Budapest gears up to host the annual LGBT sportsfest known as the EuroGames next summer, one thing’s fairly clear: The Hungarian capital’s mayor, István Tarlós, won’t be watching.
In a just-released letter to Berlin’s openly gay mayor Klaus Wowereit, Tarlós says that while he respects the right of the EuroGames folks to do whatever they and their “like-minded people” want, “I disassociate myself from both [the] lifestyle, as well as from the event. It is not for me, in my power, to support them.”
Hungarian media reports that Tarlós has furthermore taken to playing the heterophobia card: “Is this not a discriminatory event, if this tendency is only that such people can participate? Because… this is a form of exclusion.”
Despite the lack of love from the mayor, the EuroGames will take place in Budapest from June 27 to July 1, 2012, with about 4,000 athletes from across the European continent expected to participate.
Photo via tarlosistvan.hu
