Warsaw mayor vows ban on gay parade for second consecutive year

Warsaw's conservative mayor vowed Wednesday to ban an annual gay rights parade for a second year, saying that he is "against propagating gay orientation" in the Polish capital. Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is widely seen as a leading contender for Poland's presidency in October elections, said he would block plans by gay rights activists for a march on June 11. He said it would interfere with plans to unveil a monument that day to Gen. Stefan Rowecki, a leader of Poland's anti-Nazi underground army during World War II. "Organizing a gay parade on that day is a joke," Kaczynski was quoted as saying by the news agency PAP. "I am for tolerance but am against propagating gay orientation." Tomasz Baczkowski, a leader of Equality Foundation, the group organizing the parade, said organizers would try to appeal a ban to regional authorities. Last June, Kaczynski banned the fourth annual Equality Parade, saying he feared clashes between gay rights groups and opponents who planned a counterdemonstration. Despite the ban, about 500 supporters of gay and lesbian rights rallied in front of city hall, chanting, "Homophobe!" A leading member of the center-right Law and Justice Party, Kaczynski is widely expected to run in the October 9 election to replace center-left president Aleksander Kwasniewski, who cannot seek a third term. Kaczynski has won popularity as mayor for taking a tough stance on crime and promoting efforts to commemorate Warsaw's history--including a museum devoted to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and a planned museum on the history of Poland's Jews. (AP)