Warsaw allows gay Pride march
The Mayor of Warsaw has rejected calls from the youth wing of a government party to ban a gay Pride parade in the city tomorrow.
The Catholic Youth Movement, who are affiliated with the Polish League of Families, had demanded that she stop the gay event, claiming it posed a threat to morality.
Hanna Gronkiewicz Walz told Polish radio that any ban would contradict the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.
Earlier this month the Strasbourg-based court ruled that the ban on the 2005 Pride event in Warsaw was a violation of human rights. The seven judges, including one from Poland, were unanimous.
The ECHR agreed that freedom of association and assembly, prohibition of discrimination and the right to an effective remedy had been denied, all of which are guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights.
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.
A gay Pride event was permitted by the city authorities last year.
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 organisers, saying, “I am not willing to meet perverts.”
During his presidential campaign, Mr Kaczynski said that he would continue to ban gay demonstrations, as “public promotion of homosexuality will not be allowed.”
When Warsaw marchers defied the ban and peacefully demonstrated in 2004, skinheads associated with the far-right All-Polish Youth assaulted them.
The All-Polish Youth is affiliated with the League of Polish Families, and was founded in 1989 by Education Minister Mr Giertych. The party is in govenment with Mr Kaczynski’s party.
In April 2006, demonstrators from the All-Polish Youth also attacked a “March for Tolerance” in Krakow, pelting it with stones and eggs.
