Yahoo Finance Germany vs Hungary: Allianz Arena stadium could be lit up in rainbow colours
The Mayor of Munich will request permission from UEFA for the Allianz Arena to be lit up in rainbow colours for Germany's final Euro 2020 group game against Hungary.
Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said on Sunday he was going to write to UEFA to ask for for the stadium - the home of Bayern Munich and the national team - to be lit up with the colors as a sign against homophobia and intolerance when they play Hungary on Wednesday.
"This is an important sign of tolerance and equality," Reiter told news agency dpa.
Munich's city council had already called for the stadium to be lit in rainbow colors for the final Euro 2020 group game to protest a law passed by Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday that prohibits sharing with minors any content portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment. The law has been denounced as anti-LGBT discrimination by human rights groups.
"It is important for the state capital Munich to set a visible sign of solidarity with the LGBTI community in Hungary, which is suffering from the current stricter homophobic and transphobic legislation of the Hungarian government," the Munich council said in its application.
As organisers of the Euros, UEFA will have the final say.
The Munich city council accused Hungary "of following the example of Russia's homophobic and transphobic legislation."
"This legislation represents a new mark in the invisibility and disenfranchisement of lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI) and adds to the systematic restriction of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms that have been practiced for years in Hungary," the council said.
Germany captain Manuel Neuer has already worn an armband in rainbow colors for his team's opening group games against France and Portugal.
The council said Munich "is committed to diversity, tolerance and equality in sport and in society as a whole."
But not everyone agrees.
Uwe Junge, a politician with the far right AfD party, was chastised by party leader Alice Weidel for "going too far" with a since-deleted post on Twitter in which he used a homophobic slur to describe Neuer's rainbow armband.
The Allianz Arena was previously lit in rainbow colors on the night of July 9, 2016, to celebrate Christopher Street Day.
Additional reporting by AP.
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