- Title: Poland's Kaczynski condemns gay pride marches as election nears
- Date: 19th August 2019
- Summary: STALOWA WOLA, POLAND (AUGUST 18, 2019) (REUTERS) KACZYNSKI ON STAGE AS CHILDREN SING
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2019 13:38
- Keywords: LGBT+ in Poland Jaroslaw Kaczynski Law and Justice party gay pride marches in Poland
- Location: STALOWA WOLA, POLAND
- City: STALOWA WOLA, POLAND
- Country: Poland
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002ASVW115
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Poland must resist the "travelling theatre" of gay pride marches, the leader of its ruling conservative party said on Sunday (August 18), as the staunchly Roman Catholic country gears up for a parliamentary election on October 13.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has used LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights as a key campaign issue, depicting them as a dangerous Western idea that undermines traditional Catholic values.
"The offensive, this travelling theatre that is showing up in different cities to provoke and then cry... we are the ones who are harmed by this, it must be unmasked and discarded," PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a party campaign picnic in the town of Stalowa Wola.
Kaczynski also said he was "grateful" to a Polish archbishop who said this month that Poland was under siege from a "rainbow plague" of gay rights campaigners whom he compared to Poland's former Communist rulers.
Political analysts say PiS' criticism of LGBT rights could be a strategy to rally its conservative rural base for the election. It is leading in opinion polls and is expected to win a fresh four-year mandate.
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