Tag Archives: Poland

EU May Withhold Poland Funds Over “LGBT-Free Zones”

Bloomberg News reports: The European Union threatened to block as much as 126 million euros ($150 million) of cohesion funds to local Polish governments over anti-LGBTQ zones introduced in five provinces. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, sent letters to the governors of the provinces last week warning that if the resolutions weren’t rescinded the money would be withheld. …

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Belarusian Olympic Sprinter Granted Visa By Poland

Reuters reports: A Belarusian athlete who took refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo on Monday a day after refusing her team’s orders to board a flight home from the Olympic Games has been granted a humanitarian visa by the Warsaw government. Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya plans to leave for Poland in the coming days, a Polish deputy foreign minister, Marcin …

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Polish Education Minister Rages About “Perversion And Deviation” After Warsaw Pride: Insult To Public Morality

Reuters reports: Poland’s education minister said on Wednesday a march held in support of equal rights for LGBT people was an “insult to public morality” and questioned whether participants were normal, prompting angry protests from the opposition. Przemyslaw Czarnek also rejected the idea that “inclusive language” should be used in schools. “In Polish schools, the Polish language is obligatory, not …

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Poland To Enter Three Week Lockdown As Cases Soar

Politico Europe reports: Poland will close most public venues this Saturday for three weeks, as the rapidly growing number of new daily coronavirus cases threatens the country’s already overwhelmed health care services, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said Wednesday. On the day of the announcement, the country noted 25,052 new infections, a 44 percent jump on the same day last week, …

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EU Votes 492-141 To Declare Itself LGBT Freedom Zone

The Associated Press reports: The European Parliament has overwhelming adopted a resolution declaring the entire 27-member European Union a “freedom zone” for LGBT people, an effort to push back on rising homophobia in Poland and elsewhere. The parliament announced late Thursday that there were 492 ballots in favor of the resolution and 141 against in a vote that came after …

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EU To Vote On Declaring Itself “LGBT Freedom Zone”

The Associated Press reports: The European Parliament is scheduled to debate a resolution on Wednesday that would declare the entire 27-member European Union a “freedom zone” for LGBT people. The move comes largely in reaction to developments over the past two years in Poland, where many local communities have adopted largely symbolic resolutions declaring themselves free of what conservative authorities …

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EU Unveils New Plan To Broaden LGBTQ Protections In Reaction To “Worrying Trends” In Poland And Hungary

The Guardian reports: Brussels has put itself on a collision course with the Polish and Hungarian governments after proposing to criminalise hate speech against LGBTQ+ people under EU law and secure recognition of same-sex partnerships across the bloc’s borders. Věra Jourová, a European commissioner, said the measures followed new “worrying trends”, with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reporting that …

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US Joins 49 Nations To Pressure Poland On LGBT Rights

The BBC reports: Ambassadors from around the world have called for the rights of gay and transgender people to be respected in Poland, where many towns have declared themselves free of “LGBT ideology”. An open letter released on Sunday urges the Polish government to “end discrimination” of sexual minorities. It was signed by envoys from 50 countries, including Poland’s EU …

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Polish President Reelected After Anti-LGBT Campaign

The Associated Press reports: Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who ran a campaign with homophobic and anti-Semitic overtones, narrowly won a second five-year term in a bitterly fought weekend election, defeating the liberal Warsaw mayor, according to a near-complete count of votes. Duda’s supporters celebrated what they saw as a clear mandate from voters for him and the right-wing …

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More Countries Move To Seal Borders, Deny Foreigners

The Associated Press reports: Poland planned to close its borders at midnight and deny all foreigners entry unless they lived in Poland or had personal ties there. The Czech Republic and Slovakia took similar action. Lithuania said it was introducing border checks at the frontiers with Poland and Latvia for 10 days and was considering banning foreigners from entering. Russia …

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POLAND: Leftists Tap Gay Man To Run For President

Agence France-Press reports: Poland’s left-wing parties on Tuesday approved Robert Biedron, an openly gay politician, as their candidate in the May presidential election. The move in the conservative, predominantly Catholic country where same-sex unions are not recognised, was aimed at preserving democracy, they said. Leaders in the Lewica (Left) alliance said they chose Biedron because of his clear backing for …

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Polish Nationalists Win Big After Anti-LGBT Campaign

Reuters reports: Poland’s ruling conservative nationalist party won parliamentary elections on Sunday, a result that likely will lead it to seek to exert even more control over the country’s judiciary and deepen a showdown with the European Union. Preliminary results showed the Law and Justice party won about 44% of the vote, giving it a majority in the 460-seat lower …

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Germany Asks Poland For WWII Forgiveness [VIDEO]

Politico Europe reports: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked for Poland’s forgiveness as he marked the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II on Sunday. Speaking at a ceremony in the Polish town of Wieluń, where the first German bombs fell, Steinmeier said “far too few” Germans knew the town’s history today. Alternating between German and Polish, he continued: …

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POLAND: Archbishop Condemns “The Rainbow Plague”

Reuters reports: Poland’s Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide. In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the …

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POLAND: Anti-Fascism Rallies Held After Thousands Of Extremists Terrorize Small LGBT Pride Parade [VIDEO]

The New York Times reports: The marchers at the first gay pride parade here in the conservative Polish city of Bialystok expected that they would be met with resistance. But last week when Katarzyna Sztop-Rutkowska saw the angry mob of thousands that awaited the marchers, who numbered only a few hundred, she was shocked. “The most aggressive were the football …

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Poland: IKEA Worker Sues After Being Fired For Posting “Death To Gays” Bible Verses On Company’s Intranet

Catholic News Agency reports: An Ikea worker in Poland has filed a lawsuit after being fired last week for posting Bible verses opposing homosexual behavior on the company’s intranet. Tomasz K is suing after he was terminated from his position at the furniture store in Krakow. Poland Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro has also asked the national prosecutor’s office to …

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TELL NO ONE: Polish Documentary About Pedophile Catholic Priests Goes Wildly Viral On YouTube [VIDEO]

The Washington Post reports: A new documentary revealing cases of sexual abuse by priests has deeply shaken Poland, one of Europe’s most Roman Catholic societies, eliciting an apology from the church hierarchy and prompting one cleric to leave priestly life. “Tell No One,” a film financed through a crowdfunding campaign, was released on YouTube on Saturday. By Monday, the documentary …

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Poland Jails Activist For Rainbow Halo Mary Posters

The Guardian reports: A woman has been arrested on suspicion of offending religious sentiment, after posters bearing an image of the Virgin Mary with her halo painted in the colours of the rainbow flag appeared in the city of Płock in central Poland. The Polish interior minister, Joachim Brudziński, announced on Twitter on Monday that a person had been arrested …

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Polish Leader: LGBT Rights Are An “Imported Threat”

The Associated Press reports: The chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation. Kaczynski, a member of parliament who wields tremendous influence as leader of the Law and Justice party, also said during a lecture on patriotism that “everyone must accept Christianity” in Poland and questioning …

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POLAND: Extremists Arrested At Pride March [VIDEO]

In Poland reports: Nine men were detained by the police following Saturday’s pride march in the western central Polish city of Gniezno, deputy inspector Iwona Liszczyńska reported. Some of the detainees were accused of disturbing a public gathering and violating police officer’s bodily integrity. The first ever pride march in Gniezno’s history took place under the “Gniezno – the first …

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