Homosexual victims of Nazi concentration camps were honoured for the first time in Poland on Friday (May 17), with a floral wreath at the Majdanek camp in the eastern city of Lublin.
A group of local LGBT activists placed the wreath in the shape of a pink triangle at the foot of a memorial to the camps victims.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazi regime declared homosexuality a felony and forced homosexual men to wear pink triangles to identify themselves.
Some 50,000 gay men were convicted by Nazi courts during Adolf Hitler's 12-year dictatorship. Some gay men were castrated and thousands were sent to concentration camps.
LGBT activist Kazimierz Strzelec said that the group wanted to pay homage to homosexual victims as their memory has largely been forgotten.
LGBT rights remains a divisive subject in Catholic Poland and there have been clashes over the issue between the ruling conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) and the more liberal opposition ahead of upcoming European and national parliamentary elections.
Poland ranks second to last out of 28 European Union states when it comes to equality and non-discrimination, according to Rainbow Europe, an organization linked to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Bartosz Staszewski, who attended the wreath laying ceremony, said that LGBT people in Poland must do their part to speak out against hatred against them.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters