Tag Archives: Poland

The Polish parliament today narrowly rejected legislation that would grant some relationship rights to same-sex couples. The lower house of parliament rejected three bills that would have legalized civil unions, including narrowly defeating one proposed by a member of the ruling Civic Platform that would have given limited rights to unmarried partners, including ability to inherit property. The motion to …

Details. (Tipped by JMG reader Vivian)

The Polish Catholic Church has launched the world’s first magazine exclusively devoted to exorcisms. By popular demand. Seriously. “The rise in the number or exorcists from four to more than 120 over the course of 15 years in Poland is telling,” Father Aleksander Posacki, a professor of philosophy, theology and leading demonologist and exorcist told reporters in Warsaw at the …

Poland’s ruling party has announced its plan to introduce a civil partnerships bill. After several months of discussion, the PO [Platforma Obywatelska] decided last week to put to the vote a draft bill in both chambers of the Polish parliament, the Sejm and Senate. The proposed draft bill of registered civil partnership is similar the current French Pacte civil de …

And the Romney World Gaffe Tour rolls on!

Ron Paul’s followers are everywhere, including at Mitt Romney’s stop in Gdansk, Poland. Tomorrow they will protest his appearance in Warsaw. Source.

Via press release from a local LGBT rights group: 43 years after the Stonewall riot, Polish deputies decided that same sex couples are citizens of a second class. Yesterday, on 28 June, in the Polish Sejm – the Lower House of the Parliament – deputies rejected the Civil Partnership Bill for same and different sex couples. The Commission of Legislation, …

AFP reports: In a little-noticed decision at the end of October, a court allowed the small National Rebirth of Poland (NOP) party to register two symbols. One was the Celtic cross, used by far-right movements internationally, while the other was a stylized illustration of gay sex with a bar through it. The NOP trumpeted the court ruling on its website …

Via Political Wire: “Polish parliamentary hopeful Jedrzej Wijas of the Democratic Left Alliance enlisted the help of a local death metal band to make a very unique political ad.”

After criticism from a local newspaper, a Polish university has canceled this weekend’s “ex-gay” conference in which the keynote speaker was to have been famed NARTH whackadoodle Joseph Nicolesi (left). The Foundation for Health and Psychotherapeutic Education head, psychologist Bogna Bialecka, said that her Poznan-based organization has been planning the conference for several months so that Nicolosi could share his …

Supposedly liveable at a yard-wide at its narrowest point. (Source)

Anybody else hearing Britney?

Polish LGBT activists have launched a billboard campaign called Love Doesn’t Exclude Us in Warsaw and Lodz to support their demand for a civil partnerships law. Campaign organizer Wojciech Szot writes us today: The aim of the campaign is to draw attention to the fact that Poland has no civil partnerships law, and Polish legislation provides no regulations for same-sex …

It’s not quite 900 feet, but the statue going up in Poland will be the world’s biggest Jeebus. Why are they building it? For the MONEY, silly. Although erected ostensibly to show gratitude to God, the town hopes having the massive statue will bring tourists into a community that has lain off the beaten track for most of its existence. …

The 17th annual EuroPride took place in Warsaw, Poland today, the first time the traveling event has been staged in Eastern Europe. Approximately 2000 Polish riot police were on hand to protect marchers from far-right and Catholic extremists. The parade, part of the EuroPride gay rights festival, is meant to give a boost to the fledgling gay rights movement in …

Poland has declared a week of mourning after President Lech Kaczynski and his wife were killed in a plane crash in western Russia this morning. All passengers and crew died in the crash. As mayor of Warsaw, Kaczynski had repeatedly banned gay pride marches and had been quoted as saying that same-sex marriage would bring about the destruction of the …

A Danish pro soccer team has fired its star goalie, Arek Onyszko, after he published a memoir with strongly homophobic language. Polish goalkeeper Arek Onyszko has been fired by FC Midtjylland, a Danish football club, for making homophobic comments in his autobiography. The player’s book, titled Fucking Polack, was released yesterday. In it, he detailed his hate of homosexuality. Onyszko …

British celebrities including Stephen Fry, Eddie Izzard, and Ewan MacGregor sent a letter to the UK’s Conservative Party leader David Cameron, urging him to repudiate the homophobic policies of the Polish Law and Justice Party, a Tory ally. Cameron responded by denying the charges, but also said that Poland is a Catholic country, so what can you do? Speaking to …

A woman in Poland has been fined over $5000 for calling her young gay neighbor names like “faggot” and “queer.” A judge in north-west Poland ruled the 44-year-old woman had infringed Ryszard Giersz’s dignity by repeatedly verbally abusing him in public. The woman, identified in court as Anna S, was also ordered to pay Mr Giersz damages of 15,000 zloty …

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president Lech Walesa plans to join a protest against Madonna’s August concert in Warsaw, saying that she had dishonored his religion by posing as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa on the cover of a Polish magazine three years ago. Walesa is especially angry because the concert falls on a Catholic holiday important to …