Tens of thousands of people attended the LGBTIQ+ pride parade in Warsaw today, following comments made by the right-wing president, Andrzej Duda, who in the midst of his re-election campaign targeted that community to mobilize his followers.
During the inauguration of the equality parade, which is held every year, the mayor of the capital, the liberal Rafal Trzaskowski, an opponent, promised that the LGBTIQ+ community “will always be safe.”
“I hope everyone is safe in Poland,” he told the crowd, which waved rainbow flags.
The LGBTIQ+ collective has been in the spotlight of the Polish government.
President Andrzej Duda has equated “LGBTIQ+ ideology” with communism and the ruling party chief has branded gays a “threat” to the traditional family.
Michal Niepielski, a 60-year-old radio technician from Krakow, told the AFP news agency that he had been attending the march with his partner for 18 years.
Both see positive changes in the “social climate” of the country.
“In the first marches we came to, we had to hide all the rainbow references after the parade so as not to be attacked somewhere outside the city center. Now, things are totally different,” he said.
Niepielski admitted, however, that he was concerned that the authorities would intensify anti-LGBTIQ+ rhetoric ahead of the year-end elections “to mobilize their electorate.”
“This is something that has been recurring for many years (…). And this obviously affects us, because it is not pleasant to see politicians call us ‘deviant’, ‘sick’, ‘a threat to the Polish family’,” he added.
In Poland, same-sex unions are not legally recognized, neither in the form of marriage nor civil union. Transgender people also face obstacles in formalizing their transition.
Source: Ambito
