News
2006-08-31
Prime minister:
Polish gays treated just fine
Polish prime
minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Wednesday sought to dispel
concerns over Warsaw's stance on gay rights and the alleged
Polish prime
minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Wednesday sought to dispel
concerns over Warsaw's stance on gay rights and the alleged
rise in xenophobia in the country, saying gays and
lesbians are not persecuted in Poland and strict
provisions against anti-Semitism are in place.
The new Polish
leader, the identical twin brother of Polish president
Lech Kaczynski, also called Poland's two-year membership in
the European Union a "success," saying his government
would push for the dismantling of market barriers
within the E.U. to enhance the 25-nation bloc's
economic potential.
Kaczynski chose
Brussels for his first foreign trip since taking power
two months ago to highlight the importance he is placing on
fixing Poland's image problem in Western Europe,
following criticism over issues from Warsaw's position
on gay rights to the death penalty and accusations of
economic protectionism.
"Do not believe
in the myth of an anti-Semitic, homophobic, and
xenophobic Poland. Please come to Poland; visit my country.
You can go to clubs, you can ask around, you will not
see anything bad," Kaczynski told journalists after
meeting European Commission president Jose Manuel
Barroso.
Several
contentious issues have bubbled up between Brussels and
Warsaw since the Kaczynskis' conservative Law and
Justice Party won the parliamentary election late last
year. Lech Kaczynski won the presidency weeks later.
The governing coalition includes populists and
ultra-Catholics. The inclusion of the right-wing League of
Polish Families, whose members have spoken out against
homosexuality, has sparked protest because of its
close links with a far-right radical youth movement.
Homosexuality
remains taboo in Poland, as it does in much of Eastern
Europe. When Lech Kaczynski was mayor of Warsaw he refused
permits for gay pride marches in 2004 and 2005. He
once said that "it would be very dangerous for our
civilization to put homosexual rights on an equal
footing."
A recent European
Parliament resolution warned of rising intolerance in
Poland and even raised the possibility of sanctions. But in
his remarks Wednesday, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that
gays enjoy "all the rights in Poland.... There is no
tradition of persecution of people of another sexual
orientation. For decades it has been known about many
prominent people, they are homosexuals, it has never
been a problem. What we have now in Poland are gay
clubs, gay literature, gay press—this is all
functioning normally." (AP)
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