In Poland, they are planning lesbian and gay-free zones. "Will rainbow armbands and camps for LGBT people follow?" ask opponents
A crossed-out rainbow flag with the black inscription "Strefa wolna od LGBT" ( LGBT-free zone) - that's exactly what the design of the stickers looks like, which will be available on 24 July. According to the British news portal BBC, it has around 110,000 regular readers and also openly supports the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. "We are facing a direct attack on the family and children - the sexualisation of children, the LGBT movement, gender," said PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. According to him, it is the LGBT community and all those who fight for equal rights in society, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, who "threaten the Polish national identity, the Polish nation, its continuation and therefore the Polish state."
Every tradition can find followers...
"The German fascists created Jew-free zones. Apartheid got rid of black people. As you can see, every 'tradition' can find followers, currently in Poland under the tactics of PiS and the bishops," tweeted Pawel Rabiej, an openly gay man and deputy mayor of Warsaw. "I will file a complaint to the prosecutor's office in this matter," he adds. "This is how fascism was officially introduced in Poland," writes Polish actress and columnist Paulina Mlynarska. "Non-heterosexual people make up about 10% or more of society. What will follow? Rainbow ribbons? Camps?" she asks.
However, the comparison with Nazism is not even feared in the aforementioned periodical, claiming that all those who reject the LGBT ideology are persecuted in a similar way to Nazi Germany. This claim was then "substantiated" by the fact that the image of the sticker in question was blocked by Instagram on the grounds that it was hate speech. And censorship, after all, was a classic tool of the Nazis...
"I am disappointed and concerned that some groups are using stickers to promote hate and intolerance. Let us respect freedom of expression, but we must also insist on the values of diversity and tolerance," said Georgette Mosbacher, the US ambassador to Poland. The editor of Gazeta Polska, Tomasz Sakiewicz, immediately countered that "being an activist in the gay movement does not make anyone more tolerant."
Sakiewicz's assertion is to some extent confirmed by the fact that the Polish LGBT community immediately reacted to the planned sticker in its own way - several versions of the modified sticker/frame are already circulating on Facebook, which instead of the original text reads "Strefa wolna od nienawisci" (Zone without hate). Yes, Poles really love freedom and tolerance. Just perhaps not quite in the way Sakiewicz would like.
Poland openly against LGBT people
Despite Poland being a member of the European Union, LGBT people in the country still do not enjoy equal rights, and so far (as in Slovakia, for example) cannot even enter into registered partnerships. According to European statistics and Rainbow Europe's ranking, Poland is then - in terms of quality of life for LGBT people - only 38th out of 49 countries with regard to the low equality index. Not surprisingly - last year, for example, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he would not hesitate to support the introduction of a law banning gay propaganda, built on a similar basis to Russia's...
