BERLIN (AP) — Some 35,000 revelers marched for LGBTQ rights at Berlin’s annual Christopher Street Day celebration on Saturday, twice as many as expected. The parade started with a call from Klaus Lederer, Berlin’s senator for culture, to make the city a “queer-freedom zone” in response to deteriorating safety for gays and lesbians in Hungary and neighboring Poland. “LGBT-free zones” have been declared in parts of Poland, while Hungary recently passed a law banning the depiction of homosexuality or gender reassignment to minors that has been denounced as discriminatory by human rights groups. Lederer said the situation in the two EU members “sends shivers down my back.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The senator also noted that the pandemic had been particularly hard for some gays and lesbians at home as shelters were closed.