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Poland's Lech Walesa Shocks Nation With Antigay Statements

Poland's Lech Walesa Shocks Nation With Antigay Statements

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The former president and human rights campaigner said gay people 'must adjust to smaller things.'

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Lech Walesa, Poland's first democratic-era president and a legendary labor leader who has been lauded as a human rights activist, has made clear his support for human rights does not extend to gay people.

In a TV interview Friday, the former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner went on a homophobic rant, saying gay people should not play a prominent role in politics. Walesa said "that he believes gays have no right to sit on the front benches in Parliament and, if represented at all, should sit in the back, 'and even behind a wall,'" the Associated Press reports.

"They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things," he told broadcaster TVN. "And not rise to the greatest heights, the greatest hours, the greatest provocations, spoiling things for the others and taking [what they want] from the majority. I don't agree to this and I will never agree to it. ... A minority should not impose itself on the majority."

An anti-hate speech group today filed a complaint with prosecutors in Walesa's hometown of Gdansk, saying he has promoted "propaganda of hate against a sexual minority." Several politicians and journalists decried his words as well.

"His language was appalling," said Jerzy Wenderlich, a deputy speaker of Parliament. "It was the statement of a troglodyte." Read more here.

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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.