Posted on 06/05/2006 12:43:15 PM PDT by lizol
Poland: Official Homophobia Threatens Basic Freedoms
05 May 2006 18:41:00 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch
(New York, June 5, 2006) - Recent threats by Polish officials against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and organizations threaten everyone's basic freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Prime Minister Kasimierz Marcinkiewicz. Poland's State Prosecutor has reportedly instructed local prosecutors to launch investigations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations and their "pedophilic actions." Human Rights Watch said that anti-gay actions and comments by numerous officials constitute a pattern of repression in Poland.
"Poland's leaders have stoked the fires of homophobic hatred to advance their political careers," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "The continuing calls to restrict a minority's basic freedoms threaten the fabric of democracy."
In a letter sent on May 12, Wojciech Wierzejski, a member of parliament whose extremist League of Polish Families party sits in government, urged the justice and interior ministries to investigate the LGBT organizations' activities and financing. Wierzejski claimed that "the homosexual community's agenda is to propagate deviant attitudes among youth, and - what is worse - they are connected to a world of quasi-criminal character, including pedophilia."
The prime minister's ruling Law and Justice Party, struggling to achieve a parliamentary majority, recently formed a coalition with two right-wing parties, the League of Polish Families and the Self-Defense Party. Both have a record of nationalist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Roman Giertych, leader of the League of Polish Families, became deputy prime minister and minister of education. He has stated that, "There is no room, nor will there ever be any room for homosexual activism within the school system in Poland on my watch."
On May 19, days after Wierzejski's letter, the deputy minister of education Miroslaw Orzechowskiego, also a member of the League of Polish Families, accused the Campaign against Homophobia, a Polish LGBT group, of "depraving young people." Pointing to an international seminar on gender stereotypes that the group co-sponsored in 2005, he said the ministry would work to "prevent such organizations from getting money in the future."
In recent weeks, Wierzejski has also called for a ban on a June 10 Equality March in Warsaw, warning that, "If deviants start to demonstrate, they should be bashed with a baton."
President Lech Kaczynski, the former leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party, has long opposed lesbian and gay people's rights to expression and assembly. When serving as mayor of Warsaw, he attempted to ban Gay Pride marches in 2004 and 2005. He refused to meet with the parade organizers, saying, "I am not willing to meet perverts." During his presidential campaign, Kaczynski said that he would continue to ban gay demonstrations, as "public promotion of homosexuality will not be allowed."
When Warsaw marchers defied Kaczynski's ban and peacefully demonstrated in 2004, skinheads associated with the far-right All-Polish Youth violently assaulted them. The All-Polish Youth is affiliated with the League of Polish Families, and was founded in 1989 by Education Minister Giertych. In April 2006, demonstrators from the All-Polish Youth also attacked a "March for Tolerance" in Krakow, pelting it with stones and eggs.
"Intolerance has reached the highest levels of Poland's government, and it brings the menace of violence in its train," said Long. "Polish political leaders must condemn the voices of hatred, and affirm that human rights are for all."
Human Rights Watch called on Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz to publicly disavow all threats and vilification directed against LGBT people and LGBT organizations. It also urged him to take all necessary steps to ensure that the June 10 Equality March planned for Warsaw be permitted to proceed, and to ensure that gay pride demonstrations take place without interference or intimidation.
Ping
Well, yes. Why is this controversial?
Poland: Official Homophobia Threatens Basic Freedoms
Poland, a burr under the saddle of Europeans wishing to ride into the sunset on Brokeback Mountain...
LBGT is another Marketer Of Evil (David Kupelian's term).
Oh, brother...
It is profoundly unwise to use the force of government to mandate social tolerance for deviant sexual practice. In fact that has nothing to do with tolerance; rather, it's coercion towards all those who still try to hang onto a sense of morality, and to instill a moral sense into the hearts and minds of the next generation -- our children, all of whom, I must add, are the product of heterosexuality.
Homophobia. What a made up, useless word. Fear of homosexuals? Fear of homo sapiens? Fear of homogenized milk? It means nothing.
I like the, fear of homogenized milk. Got a good laugh from that one...
As a pal of mine says put 18 Poles in a room and you have 36 political parties add two Lits and and you have 72 but don't miss Mass, then 144. Poland is a Great place.
I understand Poland is also pedophobic, beastophobic, and incestophobic--they are indeed a vile country of subhuman species. Such phobias can only mean they are sick as a nation. SARC
I think it's good to be nationalist. I'm am, myself, although not Polish, as it happens.
And "anti-Semitic" is the catch-all accusation for the left. It seems to mean, "Some people of Jewish ancestry ... well, they're totally secular, none of this G-d and Torah and stuff, but Jewish ancestry ... they support the LBGTQ agenda, so if you don't, you're anti-Semitic."
LOL! Eastern Europe is an interesting place, I understand :-).
"Poland's leaders have stoked the fires of homophobic hatred to advance their political careers," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "The continuing calls to restrict a minority's basic freedoms threaten the fabric of democracy."
Boy, does Human Rights Watch have it WRONG! They want basic freedom to include substantially increased risks to AIDS, trauma of pedophilia, destruction of the family!!? Human Rights Watch needs to review what freedom means; we want freedom from increased risks associated with the sodomite crowd. We also want freedom from, or decreased risk of sexually transmitted diseases and the other unwholesome physical and mental environmentally destructive attributes associated with them. Poland has it exactly RIGHT!
I am a nationalist as well. The 'skinheads' attacking people has happened before as stated in the article. The results have never been good. Poland is currently a US ally. I for one would like that to continue.
I agree that people attacking other people is a bad idea. However, that's a big jump from taking the position that legislators are "Nazi" if they don't support organized homosexuals' access to children.
I'd like Poland to continue to be our ally, too ... including our ally in defending civilization from homosexual militancy.
LOL!
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