'Homosexuality should be cured'
2006-06-09 17:02
Warsaw - Gay rights activists and politicians from throughout Europe will march through Warsaw on Saturday, in a show of support for homosexuals who are waging an intensified battle for acceptance through much of Eastern Europe.
The Equality Parade comes as an increasingly vocal gay rights movement faces off against conservative leaders.
Homosexuality remains a taboo in Poland and much of the region.
Here it is a widespread belief that homosexuality is a perversion, and that gays and lesbians should seek psychological help rather than take to the streets in displays of pride.
"Homosexuality should be cured," said Miroslawa Nowakowska, 55, a retired teacher in Warsaw. She voiced the opposition many older and conservative Poles feel to Saturday's march.
"Illnesses should be treated and not advertised."
Such thinking is - to some extent - a legacy of decades of communist ideology, which held that "deviations" such as homosexuality did not exist in the ideal socialist world.
In mainly Roman Catholic Poland, it is reinforced by the strong role of the church.
Gay lifestyle 'threatens civilisation'
The Law and Justice, a conservative party whose leaders have openly denounced homosexuality, was elected into office in October.
Polish president Lech Kaczynski has staked out a strong stance on the issue.
As Warsaw mayor, he refused permits for the Equality Parade in 2004 and 2005. He said "propagating" a gay lifestyle would "threaten civilisation".
The issue of gay rights has gained a new intensity since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, along with seven other ex-communist countries.
"EU membership has had a huge impact," said Piotr Kaczynski, of the Institute of Public Affairs. "Activists feel more secure in Poland now. They know the EU is watching."
He said intensified public debate about homosexual rights marked the start of a liberalising social movement similar to what the West went through in the 1960s and 1970s.
Protesters pummelled in Russia
Politicians from Germany and Sweden, who are mobilising in reaction to recent violence against gays in the region, are attending Saturday's march.
A week earlier in Bucharest, Romania, passers-by threw plastic bottles and shouted anti-gay slogans at a gay rights demonstration.
In a march in Moscow in May, gay rights activists were pummelled by protesters and detained by police when they rallied in defiance of a city ban.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said gay parades "may be acceptable for some kind of progressive, in some sense, countries in the West, but it is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, for Russia".
The Campaign Against Homophobia said politicians from Sweden, France and the Netherlands would also attend.
"This isn't just about gays and lesbians anymore," said the organisation. "This march is against fundamentalism and the violation of human rights."
- AP