‘LGBT-free zone’ stickers to be distributed in Poland
‘LGBT-free zone’ stickers were distributed by a Polish conservative newspaper, Gazeta Polska. (GPtygodnik/ Twitter)
Polish conservative newspaper Gazeta Polska has said it will distribute “LGBT-free zone” stickers to readers with its next edition on July 24.
The stickers show a Pride flag with a black over it, at the words “LGBT-free zone” in Polish.
According to the BBC, Gazeta Polska has a circulation of 110,000 and is openly supportive of the conservative governing Law and Justice party (PiS).
The openly gay deputy mayor of Warsaw, Paweł Rabiej, wrote on Twitter: “Tomorrow I will make a complaint to the prosecutor’s office in this matter.
“The German fascists created zones free of Jews. Apartheid – from black. As you can see, the tradition finds worthy followers, this time in Poland, under an umbrella of PiS and bishops.”
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of PiS, previously said: “We are dealing with a direct attack on the family and children—the sexualization of children, that entire LBGT movement, gender.
“They today actually threaten our identity, our nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state.”
A Pride march in Poland in 2017.
The newspaper’s editor said those who reject “LGBT ideology” are persecuted and compared it to “Nazism”
The US Ambassador for Poland Georgette Mosbacher responded to the news on Twitter, saying: “I am disappointed and concerned that some groups use stickers to promote hatred and intolerance.
“We respect freedom of speech, but we must stand together on values such as diversity and tolerance.”
Gazeta Polska editor Tomasz Sakiewicz responded to the backlash in Polish publication Niezalezna, and said that Instagram had deemed a post about the stickers hate speech and taken it down.
Sakiewicz said Instagram’s decision to remove the post was “imposing ideology” and that “censorship was typical of Nazism.”
He said: “Nobody today is closer to Nazism, especially in the version of Ernst Rohm, the precursor of the Hitler Party, than those who persecute others for rejecting the LGBT ideology.”
