An impassioned plea to leading “movers and shakers” in the European Union came this week from Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (KPH – Campaign Against Homophobia) on behalf of gays in Poland.

“We can’t count on Polish authorities,” said KPH general secretary Tomasz Szypula.  “We have sent our appeals to the President and to the Prime Minister, but to no avail.

“Everybody in Poland is busy with this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections. We want you to put pressure on Polish authorities and in the name of Polish gay men and lesbians,” he pleaded.

At the beginning of this month, the Warsaw “Pride” parade was outlawed by the city’s mayor Lech Kaczynski – a presidential candidate and currently the front-runner.

Despite the ban, organisers went ahead with the parade, which saw the deputy Prime Minister and the deputy speaker of the Polish Parliament aligning themselves with the gay marchers.  The police ignored the mayor’s ban and did nothing to stop the march.

A week later, the All-Polish Youth organisation – a far “right” group – were given permission to stage a “Normality Parade”, with some 800 marching through Warsaw “to show how normal they are.  They used Nazi symbols and a lot of “hate speech”.

And among the speakers was the Polish Member of the European Parliament Wojciech Wierzejski, the former leader of All-Polish Youth and now a member of the League of Polish Families Party.

“We can’t tolerate any persons who are open about their homosexuality,” he is reported as saying during Normality Parade.  “We shouldn’t let them work with us, if we have the possibility to do so.  We can’t promote homosexual relationships.  We have to vote in Parliament and local elections for those who are against homosexual relationships.  We have to dismiss all who are supporting gays and lesbians,”

And he openly called for a “zero tolerance policy” towards gays.

“We can’t let them show their faces in public and go on telling how abnormal they are,” said Wierzejski who is a member of the Independence/Democracy Group of the Parliament..

KPH is now looking to the institutions of the European Union to enforce various treaties that Poland agreed to on joining the EU just over a year ago.

Campaign Against Homophobia claims that the Constitution of Poland, agreed in 1997, is being ignored by the “right wing” of Polish politics.

In particular, Polish gays say that two fundamental Articles of the Constitution are constantly being ignored – and were at the Normality Parade and Warsaw Pride.

Article 13 states:  “Political parties and other organizations whose programmes are based upon totalitarian methods and the modes of activity of Nazism, fascism and communism, as well as those whose programmes or activities sanction racial or national hatred, the application of violence for the purpose of obtaining power or to influence the State policy, or provide for the secrecy of their own structure or membership, shall be forbidden.”

Then, Article 32 says:  “1.  All persons shall be equal before the law. All persons shall have the right to equal treatment by public authorities.  2.  2. No one shall be discriminated against in political, social or economic life for any reason whatsoever.

But with Polish authorities refusing to clamp-down on homophobia, gays are now looking to Europe and especially Article 13 of the EC Treaty which states:  “Without prejudice to the other provisions of this Treaty and within the limits of the powers conferred by it upon the Community, the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, may take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.”

Additionally, they claim, that Poland is breaching Section 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which was solemnly proclaimed by the Presidents of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on behalf of the three institutions on the occasion of the Nice Intergovernmental Conference in December 2000

Article 21:

"1. Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.
2. Within the scope of application of the Treaty establishing the European Community and of the Treaty on European Union, and without prejudice to the special provisions of those Treaties, any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited." (source:  European Parliament)

ILGA-Europe is concerned with the latest developments in Poland when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are increasingly becoming subjected to human rights violations, open hatred and even physical violence.

Most worrying is the fact that the Polish authorities and politicians do not condemn such developments and on some occasions even initiate and fuel anti-gay sentiments, IGLA-Europe said in a press statement issued yesterday (June 24) in response to the appeal sent out on June 21 by KPH.

“We are very concerned about these developments in Poland,” said Patricia Prendiville, ILGA-Europe’s executive director.  “We call upon the Polish authorities to immediately intervene and to demonstrate in practice the protection for freedom and safety for the LGBT people in Poland.

“This would mean taking actions against hate crime and providing strong legal measures against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Europe must seriously condemn the failure of the Polish authorities to provide freedom and safety for its LGBT citizens and ensure that Poland is called to account for its failure and ensure proper protections are put in place.

“However, first of all we expect the Polish authorities to take a stance and to send a signal to the wider Polish community and all Europe, that the government condemns anti-gay hatred,” she added.

TEXT OF MESSAGE TO EUROPE FROM KPH

In the last weeks, Polish gay and lesbian community has experienced a rise of homophobic acts in Polish public life.  The Mayor of Warsaw – Lech Kaczynski – banned the Equality Parade (Warsaw Pride) despite the Polish Constitution which allows all Poles to make use of their assembly rights.

According to the Polish constitution, everybody is equal.  But according to Mr. Kaczynski “everybody can exercise assembly rights as long they are not homosexual”.

One week later the Mayor of Warsaw allowed the extreme-right All-Polish Youth organization to organize a Normality Parade (as an answer to the Equality Parade).  With Nazi symbols and using hate speech, 800 people walked in the streets of Warsaw to show how “normal” they are.

The leader of the populist-right League of Polish Families party – Roman Giertych said: “We have to show those faggots that a normal family is a wife and a husband!”

The sad fact is that according to public opinion surveys in Poland, Giertych’s and Kaczynski’s parties have a great chance to have a coalition government after this year’s election in autumn.

During the Equality Parade, its opponents – a group of All-Polish Youth – men were shouting: "faggots, just wait until autumn ".

What should gays and lesbians think about this situation? Are we supposed to live in fear?

The ex-chairman of All-Polish Youth and MEP Wojciech Wierzejski (representing League of Polish Families Party), during the Normality Parade said that his party and its youth organization say “Zero tolerance to all homosexual community!”.

“We can’t tolerate any persons who are open about their homosexuality.  We shouldn’t let them work with us, if we have the possibility to do so.  We can’t promote homosexual relationships.  We have to vote in Parliament and local elections for those who are against homosexual relationships.  We have to dismiss all who are supporting gays and lesbians,” said the MEP.

“Everybody who is identified as an out, active, gay activist should be exposed to social and moral intolerance.  We can’t let them show their faces in public and go on telling how abnormal they are,” said Wierzejski.  

“If in the future homosexuals will try to organize their ‘Equality Parade’ to promote homosexual behavior, we will use all legal ways to stop them,” he added.

Words can hurt.  Hate speech can be a deadly weapon.  A few days ago a gay man and a woman were injured because somebody was shouting to people who where going out from a gay club in Katowice (Southern Poland).

One of them was Marzena Rozlach, member of the board of Campaign Against Homophobia.  This time nothing serious happened but we can’t wait for next time.

We can’t count on Polish authorities.  We have sent our appeals to the President and to the Prime Minister, (but) to no avail.

Everybody is busy with this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.  We want you to put pressure on Polish authorities and in the name of Polish gay men and lesbians.  In (the) European Union, laws protect all people in Poland, without any dividing.

On behalf of Campaign Against Homophobia

Tomasz Szypula General Secretary

LINKS

IGLA_Europe website

Previous UK Gay News articles on Poland:

June 13:  Poland:  Gay Pride in Warsaw ‘a Great Success” say Activists, by Peter Gentle in Warsaw.  Around 2,500 gay, lesbian and human rights campaigners marched through the centre of the Polish capital on Saturday, despite having the ‘Equality Parade’ banned by the mayor of Warsaw.
June 11:  Poland:  Deputy Prime Minister Shows ‘Solidarity’ at Warsaw Gay Parade.  Two high-ranking Polish government officials joined the Gay Pride event today in Warsaw, despite a “ban” by the city’s Mayor, Lech Kaczynski.
June 8:  Poland:  Poland Fails EU Human Rights Obligations On Gay Issues - OutRage!  The banning of Warsaw Pride by the city’s Mayor, Lech Kaczynski, sets a dangerous precedent for the respect of gay rights in the European Union, says Brett Lock of the gay human rights group OutRage!
May 23:  Poland:  Warsaw’s Gay Pride Parade To Go Ahead Despite Mayor’s Ban.  Defiant gays in Warsaw have pledged that their Pride Parade scheduled for June 11 will go ahead, despite a ban announced last week by the city’s mayor.
May 18:  Moldova:  Moldovan  Authorities Ban Gay Rally Outside Parliament.  Just days before the fourth Pride event to be staged in the Moldova capital, organizers received a set-back when they were refused permission to hold a rally outside Parliament.