Poland must resist the "travelling theatre" of gay pride marches, the leader of its ruling conservative party said on Sunday (August 18), as the staunchly Roman Catholic country gears up for a parliamentary election on October 13.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has used LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights as a key campaign issue, depicting them as a dangerous Western idea that undermines traditional Catholic values.
"The offensive, this travelling theatre that is showing up in different cities to provoke and then cry... we are the ones who are harmed by this, it must be unmasked and discarded," PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said at a party campaign picnic in the town of Stalowa Wola.
Only PiS can defend the Catholic Church and ward off threats to the traditional family coming from the West, he said.
"(We must) live in freedom, and not be subject to all that is happening to the west of our borders... where freedom is being eliminated," Kaczyński added.
Kaczyński also said he was "grateful" to a Polish archbishop who said this month that Poland was under siege from a "rainbow plague" of gay rights campaigners whom he compared to Poland's former Communist rulers.
Political analysts say PiS' criticism of LGBT rights could be a strategy to rally its conservative rural base for the election. It is leading in opinion polls and is expected to win a fresh four-year mandate.
Summer marches
On August 10, more than a thousand people took part in the first pride parade held in the Polish city of Płock.
Politicians, including Robert Biedroń, one of Poland's first openly gay politicians, attended the parade, with the leader of the Wiosna party calling for more legal protection for homosexuals.
The pro-LGBT supporters had to be protected by a cordon of armed police, with officers keeping a counter-protest, by groups opposed to gay rights, away from the pride marchers.
A Płock police spokeswoman told Reuters there were around 950 counter-protesters in total and that two people were detained.
No serious incidents took place, the spokeswoman added, although there were a few scuffles with police.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has made hostility to gays a central focus of its campaign ahead of October's general election, depicting LGBT rights as a dangerous foreign idea that undermines traditional values.
Critics say PiS has fomented anti-gay sentiment and helped lead the violence against the LGBT community in Poland.
A pride parade in the provincial city of Białystok in July was marred by violence after anti-gay protesters chased people through the streets and beat them.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters