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Polish Gays Cite Homophobic Remarks by PiS Party Politicians

COMMENTARY

This morning, the gay advocacy group in Poland, Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign Against Homophobia), released a letter pointing out that the UK Conservative Party was misinformed when they say that their new political allies in the European Parliament, the Polish Law and Justice Party, were not homophobic.

KPH targeted Tory leader David Cameron and his interview yesterday on Sky News in which the Tory leader said that the Law and Justice Party were not homophobic.

So, to be helpful to Mr. Cameron and the Conservatives, here are some examples of homophobic remarks made by the Law and Justice Party politicians in recent years, gathered by our friends at Kampania Przeciw Homofobii.

■ Shortly after his nomination as Prime Minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, when asked about his attitude to homosexual people said:  If a homosexual person is trying to ‘infect’ others, then it is a breach of freedom and the state must step in – Amnesty International, (2006).  Report on the observance of gay and lesbian people‘s rights in Poland and Latvia (http://amnesty.org.pl/index.php?id=163)

■ Paweł Zyzak,the editor-in-chief of PiS’s W prawo zwrot! (Right about face!) magazine published an article in which he called homosexuals animals and the devil’s envoys whose aim is to destroy the Church.  “The devil failed to destroy the Church using people, so he wants to use the ‘animals’.  Faggots, making use of some individual acts of physical and verbal aggression, skilfully win sympathy, posing as victims of repressions and ‘intolerance’.  Their combat is joined by intellectuals either fascinated by the movement or professed faggots.” – Gazeta Wyborcza, 07.08.06,  http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/1,65648,3532930.html

■ Waldemar Bońkowski, a PiS MP, and the plenipotentiary of the party in the Kościerzyna Commune, posted a banner on the party’s headquarters in the town of Kościerzyna reading: “Lesbians and gays today, zoophiles tomorrow.. and the day after tomorrow?  Is this freedom and democracy?  This is syphilisation!  The most eminent Pole [Pope John Paul II] is looking down at us from the Lord’s House.  Where are you heading, Polish nation?” – Trybuna, 16.09.06.  http://www.trybuna.com.pl/n_show.php?code=2006091614

■ City councillors of Law and Justice, Przemyslaw Aleksandrowicz and Jacek Tomczak commented on an Equality parade in Poznan 2005: “ …this might concern the promotion of such inclinations as paedophilia, zoophilia and necrophilia; promoting a lifestyle that promotes debauchery even independently of so called orientation is a blatant breach of the rules of social conduct, we do not know if soon paedophilia, necrophilia and zoophilia will start to be treated merely as orientations.”

■ The President proposes his own ratification conditions – Lech Kaczynski warns against Germans and Homosexuals.  The President gave a televised address to the nation in which he claimed that he could not agree to ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. In explaining his reasoning, he said that not everything in the EU has to be good for Poland, and claimed that the Fundamental Rights Charter could force Poland to accept marriages which would go against the morals of most Poles. He also showed the wedding photo of a same-sex couple from the U.S. getting married in Canada without their approval.  Video at http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1542741,wiadomosc.html

■ Other political group are sceptical: PiS wants the Sejm to deal with homosexuals.  PiS says “no” to granting homosexual couples the same rights as those of a traditional family, which is why they will propose a bill for a resolution in the Sejm to stop the Council of Europe from interfering in the Polish legal system which deals with issues of morality and family issues.  The leader of the PiS party, Przemyslaw Gosiewski hopes that other parties in the Parliament will support it. “The defense of the traditional family is guaranteed in the Constitution”, he said. – http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1576602,0,1,pis-chce--by-sejm-zajal-sie-homoseksualistami,wiadomosc.html

■ The previous PiS government’s Ombudsperson for Children, Ewa Sowińska, who made the infamous accusation of the Teletubbies being “homosexual,” explained that “Homosexuality breeds paedophilia.  We see such people enter our schools ever more aggressively” (Gazeta Wyborcza, April 23-24, 2007).

■ Maria Nowak, a PiS MP during the previous Sejm, feels that homosexuality is something “not quite natural.” “I do not see a reason why homosexuals should be invited to schools. It is their private matter. There is no need to talk about it too much or pay so much attention to it” (Gazeta Wyborcza, March 14, 2007).   

■ MP Stanisław Pięta bluntly stated that: “Homosexuality is a taboo and it [sic] is the achievement of our civilization. Just like we do not relieve ourselves in public” (Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw edition, April 8, 2006).

SEE ALSO

Warsaw Gay Group and the Homophobia of Law and Justice Party.  Letter from the President of Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign Against Homophobia).  (UK Gay News, October 8, 2009)

Polish PiS Party Will Not Apologise to Gays for Its Homophobia.  Commentary.  The recent statement by William Hague, a former leader of the British Conservatives, that his party’s new political allies in the European Parliament, the Polish Law and Justice Party (PiS) had moderated their views on gays and gay rights has been dismissed in Poland.  (UK Gay News, July 7, 2009)

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