- Title: POLAND: POLISH GAYS DEFY BAN AND RIGHT-WING PROTEST TO STAGE PARADE IN WARSAW.
- Date: 12th June 2005
- Summary: (BN13) WARSAW, POLAND (JUNE 11, 2005)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: POLICE CAR DRIVING BY, DEMONSTRATION IN BACKGROUND 0.06 2. GV/MV: DEMONSTRATION; OPPONENT OF SEXUAL MINORITIES HOLDING BANNER WITH POLISH EMBLEM; FAR RIGHT YOUTH PROTESTING; FAR RIGHT YOUTH SINGING ANTI-HOMOSEXUAL SLOGANS (6 SHOTS) 0.40 3. MV/GV: RIOT POLICE TELLING PEOPLE T
- Embargoed: 27th June 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WARSAW, POLAND
- Country: Poland
- Reuters ID: LVA166OIN3FEYUDY85GG0UFGSOUO
- Story Text: Polish gays defy march ban by presidential
frontrunner.
Gay and lesbian activists and their supporters
marched through the centre of the Polish capital on
Saturday (June 11), defying a ban slapped on the parade by
Warsaw's right-wing mayor Lech Kaczynski, according to
recent polls, front-runner to win October's presidential
elections.
Kaczynski's party, the right-wing Law and Justice
party, is also expected to form the next government in
coalition with another party after parliamentary elections
in September.
Some 2,500 people, joined by Deputy Prime Minister
Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka and parliamentarians from Germany's
Green party, marched under police escort in protest against
what they called Kaczynski's violation of the marchers'
civil rights. Isolated scuffles broke out with groups of
right-wing youths who threw eggs and shouted insults.
"Taking away the normal democratic right to protest
from us means being not mature enough for democracy, not to
mention accepting minorities," said a 24-year-old marcher
who gave his first name as Sebastian.
Speaking to Reuters, German Green Party member Claudia
Roth said, "Equal rights means equal rights, means no
discrimination based on the actual identity should be
allowed. And that's a question of democracy and of equal
rights. That's why it is an important and historical day
and it's a victory against those, who do not understand
what it means, democracy and equal rights."
Kaczynski, a former Solidarity activist, banned the
parade for the second year running, arguing it was unnecessary because
there was no homophobia in Poland and
therefore no need to promote homosexuality. His ban drew
fire from U.S. and European academics, who said it was at
odds with Poland's tradition of fighting for human and
civil rights embodied by the anti-communist Solidarity
movement of the 1980s.
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