Equality Parade and KievPride marched through Warsaw to celebrate diversity

Warsaw Equality parade took place on Saturday. Thousands gathered the Equality Town set up in front of the Palace of Culture and Science. Anyone who came had a chance to get advice, talk about the situation of LGBT people in smaller towns and villages, as well take a LGBT+ people's ally.

This year's parade was special as it was organised together with KievPride, as the latter could not have taken place in the capital of Ukraine due to the war against Russian aggressors.

At a press conference held before the start of the parade, Lenny Emson of KievPride announced that some 300 people from Ukrainian LGBT+ organisations would take part in the march, and underscored the Ukrainians were very grateful to Poles for being able to co-host the event.

Asked by a reporter about not having been able to hold the march in Kiev, Emson replied: "It's absolutely painful. Of course we are grateful to Warsaw that we have this opportunity to march here".

Paulina Piechna-Więckiewicz from Equality Volunteership Foundation (Fundacja Wolontariat Równości) said it was "an honour" to have been able to organise the event together with KievPride.

Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who assumed patronage of the parade, addressed the participants.

"The parade will be special as Equality March from Kiev will walk with us. We welcome our friends from Kiev," he said. "I'm very happy that can walk together so as to prove that a huge majority of Polish men and women who are open-minded, tolerant and European," Trzaskowski added.

He also announced that representatives of various embassies and European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli would join the march.

"I applaud Warszawa’s efforts to make Warsaw an LGBTIQ-welcoming zone this International Day for Tolerance," Dalli said in a tweet.

Polish LGBT activists and lawyer Krystian Legierski was at the parade and spoke with TVN24 reporter Piotr Borowski.

"When I compare the Equality Parade from 20 years ago, then the change is unbelievable. You can see whole families here, gay and lesbian people with parents, brothers, sisters" - he said, adding that he came along with his mom, sister, and a neighbour. In his view, the parade has recently become a "whole-family celebration"

Other participants were also very eager to speak about the reason of their presence at the event.

A woman named Sandra said she had been attending parades for nearly 15 years. "I'm bisexual, so I'm a part of the community - that's why I participate, in order to celebrate diversity with my friends in my city," she said.

"Our role is to prevent the development of a social vaccum. ...If we stop taking to the streets and fight for our rights, the government will quickly fill this void with its laws and restrictions. And we will end up like Belarus, like Russia, or like Turkey," another participant told TVN24 reporter Michał Gołębiowski.