Gay penguin fairy tale ban
29 July 2009



A children's fairy tale about two gay penguins is facing a ban in Eastern Europe after politicians branded it "homosexual propaganda."

The award winning And Tango Makes Three tells the story of two male penguins who fall in love in a zoo and raise a chick from a borrowed egg. But conservative politicians in Poland have called for a ban on the book before its launch there in September.

"There is a difference between information and the promotion of certain issues in a very aggressive way. In this case, it is the promotion of homosexuality," said MEP Tadeusz Cymanski from the right-wing Law and Justice party. "My children prefer classic fairy tales," he added.

Source: Austrian Times.

Polish city changes 'gay' logo
15 June 2009

Warsaw (dpa) — The Polish city of Bialystok changed its logo Monday after complaints it was similar to a symbol once used by a gay organization in New York.

City officials opted to change the yellow and red sun logo used to promote the northeastern city. The new design is a half circle with the slogan, "Rising Bialystok."

Some 52 per cent of Bialystok residents voted in February to change the logo.

Other city officials did not think the similarity was incidental between the two logos and demanded a refund from the designers. The designers modified the original logo and won a majority vote of approval from residents on a city website.

Source: Earth Times / dpa.

Poland's former deputy prime minister jailed for 'sex-for-favours'
11 February 2010


Andrzej Lepper

Warsaw (dpa) — Poland's former deputy prime minister Andrzej Lepper was sentenced to two years and three months in jail after being found guilty of demanding and accepting sexual favours from female members of his Self-Defence party.

The district court in central Poland also sentenced former Self-Defence parliamentarian Stanislaw Lyzwinski to five years for rape and taking sexual advantage of female members of his party — a nationalist agrarian party known for its loud protests.

The scandal broke in December 2006 when party worker Aneta Krawczyk told the daily Wyborcza that Lepper and Lyzwinski demanded sexual favours in 2001 in return for a job in a regional office of the party.

Krawczyk said she was unemployed with two children to support when she was made the offer. She continued granting sexual favours until 2006 in order to keep the job. Krawczyk's claims were later backed up by other woman in the party, who came forward with similar accusations after the article was published.

Lepper had denied the allegations, saying the woman had not been employed by his party. Krawczyk was in the courtroom Thursday with her back to the camera, wiping away tears. Lepper told TVN 24 Thursday that the entire case against him was "imagined", and that he would appeal the decision.

Krawczyk also claimed Lyzwinski was the father of her youngest child, but that claim was later ruled out by DNA tests. Lyzwinski faced seven charges for acts committed from 1999-2003, including taking sexual advantage of four women and threatening them with loss of their jobs. Lepper faced charges for demanding and accepting sexual favors from Krawczyk and one other woman in 2001-2002.

Founded in 1992, Self-Defence is notorious for the anti-government demonstrations it organized in 2000. It opposed Poland's joining the European Union in 2004 and has protested against selling Polish land to foreigners. Lepper — a farmer by trade — was deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture in 2006 and 2007. He was dismissed from government in 2007 on suspicion of being involved in corruption.

Source: Earth Times / dpa.

Homosexuals win legal victory against Poland

By Jan Cienski in Warsaw
3 March 2010

Poland may not discriminate against homosexual couples, in spite of a clause in the its constitution stating that marriage is "a union of a man and a woman", the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Strasbourg.

The court found, in a unanimous ruling released on Monday, in favour of Piotr Kozak, whose partner died in 1998, and who had his request to continue living in their municipal flat in the western city of Szczecin turned down, in spite of a provision in Polish law allowing a "person who has lived in de facto cohabitation with the tenant" to succeed to the tenancy.

The Strasbourg tribunal recognised the difficulty in maintaining a balance between traditional marriage and the rights of sexual minorities but found that the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights is “a living instrument” and has to be interpreted in the light of present-day conditions. It also found that, in this case, Poland did not have a clear interest in discriminating between heterosexual and homosexual couples.

The case was greeted with joy by gay and lesbian groups in Poland.

“This is a very important case because it shows a certain inequality before the law,” said Yga Kostrzewa, spokeswoman for Lambda Warsaw, a homosexual rights group. “There will certainly be many more cases like this because there are a lot of laws and regulations that do not treat people equally.”

The ruling was viewed much more cautiously by conservatives and the Church. In an interview with the Catholic KAI news agency, Bishop Stanislaw Stefaniuk said the decision was dictated more by ideology than by the law. He said: “We still have not reached the ‘success’ of having homosexual unions treated the same as marriages but verdicts like that of the tribunal are supposed to be a guidepost for Polish courts.”

Gay rights are a controversial issue in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland. Opinion polls show that almost half of Poles feel that homosexuality is a deviance, and, except for the small ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance, no parliamentary parties are interested in pursuing the issue.

“The current parliament is very conservative, so it is unlikely to undertake any work on this subject,” said Ms Kostrzewa.

Poland became a gay-rights target after attempts by Lech Kaczynski, then the mayor of Warsaw and now the country's president, to ban a gay rights parade in 2004 and 2005.

Source: Financial Times