Rightwing Polish politician angry at elephant’s gay tendencies
A member of Poland’s Law and Justice party has criticised a zoo for acquiring an elephant that might be gay.
Poznan Zoo in the west of the country, is home to Ninio.
Councillor Michal Grzes told local media that the animal preferred male company and would probably not procreate, wasting huge amounts of the governments money.
“We didn’t pay 37 million zlotys (£7.6 million) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there,” he said.
“We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?” said Mr Grzes.
The head of the zoo has defended the purchase however and claims that 10 year old Ninio may still be too young to decide whether he is gay, bi or hetero.
Elephants do not reach sexual maturity until the age of 14.
The councillor’s anti-gay elephant stance is the latest in a string of surreal homophobic statements from Polish politicians.
The country was widely mocked when it was revealed that Ewa Sowinska, a government-appointed children rights watchdog, said she would ask psychologists to advise if the Teletubbies’ camp antics could affect children.
“I noticed [Tinky Winky] has a lady’s purse, but I didn’t realise he’s a boy,” she said.
“At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby. . . Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone.”
Her office later dropped the issue.
Miss Sowinska, a member of the militantly anti-gay and anti-abortion League of Polish Families, later resigned.
The party was a junior coalition partner in Poland’s previous government but lost its seats in parliament in an election last year.
On a state visit to Ireland in 2007 President Lech Kaczynski, a, member of the Law and Justice party, said that the promotion of homosexuality would lead to the eventual destruction of the human race.
Last year one of the party’s elected representatives, Jolanta Szczypinska, who previously worked as a nurse, told newspaper Dziennik she would not want a blood transfusion from a gay man.
The MP, whose life was saved by a blood transfusion, said if she had the choice she would prefer blood from a heterosexual.
