POLAND: Democratic icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa provokes outrage with anti-gay comments

Record ID: 277798

  • Title: POLAND: Democratic icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa provokes outrage with anti-gay comments
  • Date: 3rd March 2013
  • Summary: GDANSK, POLAND (FILE - 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS GATE TO GDANSK SHIPYARD, WHERE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT WAS BORN GATE DECORATED WITH CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS FORMER LEADER OF SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT LECH WALESA AT HIS DESK CATHOLIC CROSS ON WALL
  • Embargoed: 18th March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAF1QJPQSQ9JKT3WVBR30Y7K51A
  • Story Text: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa has provoked outrage among liberal Poles by suggesting homosexuals in parliament should sit behind a wall.
    Walesa, the deeply religious former president of post-Communist Poland, was speaking during an interview on Saturday broadcast by news channel TVN 24 in which he was asked about homosexual rights.
    Asked where homosexuals should sit in the parliamentary chamber, he said: "No minority should climb all over the majority. Even those demonstrations... I do not wish for the minority, which I disagree with, (but) tolerate, understand, and have nothing against... for them to go out and seduce my children and grandchildren with some sort of minorities."
    When asked if he is serious about keeping homosexual MP's in the back rows of parlaiment, Walesa said: "Yes, and even behind a wall. As far as (the number of votes) he represents."
    Robert Biedron, Poland's first openly gay deputy, appealed to Walesa to discuss homosexual rights with him.
    "I look on with sadness how Lech Walesa wastes the social capital which he received from the society, the huge authority he received. That is why I dream to meet with Lech Walesa," Biedron said.
    "I know Lech Walesa sometimes says too much. But I also know Lech Walesa sometimes can make one step back, distance himself and make two steps forward. That is why I would like to meet Lech Walesa, and talk about it. I don't see why I should be placed in a seating ghetto," he added.
    Walesa's comments gathered criticism across Poland's political stage, even from Christian Democratic member of the European Parliament Jacek Protasiewicz.
    "Those were very unfortunate words and they can hurt not only the image of Lech Walesa, but also the image of our country. Lech Walesa is of course more of a champion for the people than an intellectual. He is not an active politician, so his words have no influence on Polish law, but they influence the way Poland is seen and it would be better if they were somehow withdrawn, corrected or even apologised for," Protasiewicz said.
    Ryszard Nowak, a former conservative member of parliament, reported Walesa to the prosecutor's office late on Saturday, accusing him of promoting hatred of sexual minorities.
    Walesa, who became a world-famous dissident when he campaigned for human rights and freedom in Poland's communist era, expressed his views weeks after parliament defeated draft laws that would have given limited legal rights to homosexual couples.
    Poland has been struggling with issues such as gay rights, abortion, legalization of soft drugs and the role of the church in public life as younger Poles seeking a more secular society clash with a deeply religious older generation.
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